Heathcote Proposals For New Local Authority

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32120, 16 October 1969, Page 8

Heathcote Proposals For New Local Authority

All land south of the Heathcote River, including the Akaroa, Mount Herbert, Wairewa, and Heathcote counties, part of Paparua County, part of Christchurch City and all of Lyttelton Borough, should be embraced by a new local authority, the Heathcote County Council says in submissions to the Local Government Commission.

Such a new authority would be strong enough to enable planned development and would be ideal for inclusion in an area scheme, the council concludes in its submissions, which were released yesterday.

The Mount Herbert and Heathcote Counties were unanimous and would amalgamate immediately, and the Heathcote Council believed the Akaroa County would also wish to be included in such a scheme. The possibility of the Lyttelton Road Tunnel Authority being included had also been mentioned. The council considered the physical boundary of the new authority’s area should be the Heathcote River from the sea to its junction with Cashmere Road, and then an extension of Cashmere Road out to the Main Road to Little River. The river followed the foot of the hill country and Cashmere Road ran round the foot of the hills to the main highway.

The council elections in October last year were largely decided on the issue of whether the county should amalgamate with Christchurch City, and the results were overwhelmingly against this suggestion, the submissions say. Because of circumstances since then, it was considered public opinion would now be even more firmly against amalgamation with Christchurch City.

Meetings had been held with other local authorities in the area to test their feelings, and a second meeting in September had been notified by the Akaroa County that it preferred to be linked with an area that moved towards Heathcote County rather than the Ellesmere County. An advantage ip this was that the Akaroa County had plans to develop a section of the Summit Road to give more direct access to Christchurch from Akaroa, and this access would be through Heathcote County. The council had taken into account the physical similarity of the area, which was almost all hill country with similar roading, drainage and water supply problems, the submissions say. Both Akaroa and Mount Herbert counties had agreed that the Heathcote County centre would be the most logical for the area. With the development of many holiday homes round Lyttelton Harbour, and the future development of permanent residential areas similar to Diamond Harbour and

Governor’s Bay, a community of interest already existed. The submissions say the council feels existing county town and borough legislation will enable areas such as the old Sumner Borough and Lyttelton Borough to be either county towns or county boroughs, and retain their identities and some local control of domestic affairs. In a note to the submissions, the Heathcote County clerk (Mr K. D. Stills) says the council could supply water to the Governor’s Bay area, and the council already

supplies building and health inspection services to Mount Herbert County, and has agreed to issue and renew drivers’ licences at present being handled for Mount Herbert by the Christchurch City Council.

The almost certain development of the Lyttelton Harbour area into a future residential area must have an effect on the amalgamation question, Mr Stills says. Even now there is considerable development in Governor's Bay and other settlements, and these will increase with time.