DECISION CRITICISES COUNCIL ORDINANCE

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32565, 26 March 1971, Page 10

DECISION CRITICISES COUNCIL ORDINANCE

An appeal by Cyclone Industries (N.Z.), Ltd, against the refusal of the Christchurch City Council to approve the company’s application to subdivide its property in Montreal Street, has been upheld by the No. 1 Town and Country Planning Appeal Board.

In a reserved decision, the chairman of the board (Mr A. R. Turner, S.M.), has held that the proposed subdivision was not a detrimental work, as claimed by the council when it refused the application on the ground that it would complicate the question of access to Montreal Street when the proposed overbridge over Moorhouse Avenue was built.

The company argued that not only was the subdivision not a detrimental work, but that the council’s district review scheme might be invalid because it was in conflict with the present operative scheme. In his decision, Mr Turner has not decided the appeal on that point, and says: “The board doubts, but does not find it necessary to decide, whether a ‘proposed new district scheme’ is a ‘proposed district scheme’.” The decision says the council’s reliance on its own ordinances to support its decision could not be accepted because on the relevant points the ordinances were not sufficiently specific. It also says that notations on the planning maps on which the council relied were

also not sufficient to convey the meaning that access from Montreal Street to the proposed subdivision would be impracticable. Mr C. B. Atkinson, with him Mr I. J. D. Hall, appeared for the company, and Mr W. R. Lascelles appeared for the council.