Mayor Says He Will Go Ahead With Motorway

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32381, 21 August 1970, Page 1

Mayor Says He Will Go Ahead With Motorway

The Mayor of Christchurch (Mr A. R. Guthrey), impatient about, and irritated by the delay in a decision on the Harper Avenue deviation through North Hagley Park, said yesterday that he would give instructions for work to resume next week if there was not a Government decision.

The council had begun the work believing that it was acting within the law, the Mayor said. It had been shown later that under the law the consent of the Minister had been required.

The Minister had then been given all the details on the project, and Mr Guthrey said that after three months he thought action was justified. He telephoned Sir Keith Holyoake yesterday afternoon, but was unable to talk to him. Mr Maclntyre was in Rotorua and will not return to Wellington until today.

Mr Guthrey has had several telephone conversations with Mr Maclntyre, and the Minister told him recently that a decision would be made soon, “but he did not say what he meant by soon,” Mr Guthrey said yesterday. The Mayor has also spoken to the Prime Minister (Sir Keith Holyoake), about the park road, and he told him that unless there was a decision this week he would recommend Cr W. V. Cowles, the chairman of the works and services committee, and Mr P. G. Scoular, the City Engineer, to go ahead with the job. SPECIAL RULING Cr N. G. Pickering said last evening that Mr Guthrey

should have called a special meeting of-the council before he made his decision to proceed with the work. The Mayor had said he felt it was improper for the Government to treat the council in a cavalier fashion, but Mr Guthrey was treating the Minister similarly.

“The Mayor has been quick to criticise sections of the community which will not accept authority, and I suggest that by his proposed action he has placed himself in exactly the same category,” Cr Pickering said. “I completely dissociate myself from his statement.”