Mr Pickering pu Labour policy

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32711, 14 September 1971, Page 1

Mr Pickering pu Labour policy

A public affairs committee to hear and decide all complaints against the City Council, area representation voting, a metropolitan board of works elimination of environmental pollution and more attention to the “neglected” eastern suburbs were planks in the Labour Party’s policy out' lined by Mr N. G. Pickering when he opened the party’s local body election campaign in Christchurch last evening.

Mr Pickering emphasised that “there will be no road bulldozed through Hagley Park.” He said that a Labour City Council would fully support the holding of the 1974 Commonwealth Games but that a Labour council would build a combined pool-athletics stadium in Queen Elizabeth Park.

“The Centennial Pool will be rebuilt immediately as a heated, lidotype swimming pool,” he said.

Other points made by Mr Pickering were that Labour would use the petrol tax only for relieving the rate burden of all ratepayers; it would encourage all aspects of youth activities in sports, social and cultural outlets, and “we will ensure you receive 100 cents worth of value for every dollar of rate money we spend.” He was given an attentive hearing by 120 persons. There were bursts of applause, but no interjections. The chairman of the Christchurch Labour Representation Committee (Mr W. Massey) opened the meeting. Cr R. M. Macfarlane, introducing Mr Pickering, criticised the Mayor (Mr A. R. Guthrey) and Deputy-Mayor as "leaders of the City Council administration.”

Mr Guthrey was the leader in the council refusing a hearing to objectors to the road through Hagley Park, said Cr Macfarlane. The Locals Bills Committee had given objectors a hearing. Mr Guthrey had threatened to prosecute anti-war demon-

strators and had called informal meetings' of the City Council when standing orders made no provision for such meetings. Committee members The public affairs committee for the City Council would consist of two councillors, a representative of the two local daily newspapers and an independent chairman, Mr Pickering said. “The purpose is to allow any person who feels he or she has been treated unfairly by the City Council to place their case before the committee. The committee will have the power to calf for any information from City Council departments, and its decision in all cases will be final and binding off the council. “this will be our own local body ombudsman; however, we will still press through the Municipal Association for the Government to appoint a New Zealand local body ombudsman.” On area representation and voting, Mr Pickering said that the city would be divided into five areas; four of those would each elect four councillors and the fifth, the central area, would elect three. The areas would be drawn-up on a population basis.

The areas would not have separate accounting systems or rating assessments. The scheme would give all citizens more personal represen-

tation at the council table, and overcome the present cumbersome election method. "It is a fact that the majority of city councillors at present come from the northwest part of the city,” he said. Traffic policy • The Labour Party, Mr Pickering said, believed that traffic should not be encouraged to go into the heart of the city. The master transport plan would be altered so that more use could be made of the city belts, thereby stopping the “otherwise inevitable tangle of elevated motorways through our city at a cost of slom a mile.” Such a policy would almost eliminate the need to remove people from their homes. “The Mayor puts the bulldozers in Hagley Park and talks of work first and laws later. Then he is roundly sal-lied-up, if I may use that expression, by Mr Logan Sloane, chairman of the Local Bills Committee,” he said. Board of works The proposed metropolitan board of works would be pressed for by a Labour council until amalgamation of all local bodies was effected, Mr Pickering said.

The board would bring into close liaison the City Council engineers’ department, the Christchurch Drainage Board, the M.E.D., Government departments and ad

hoc bodies in a major effort at preventing costly duplication of such things as road] and footpath works. Mr Pickering spoke for more than 20 minutes on the sites for the Commonwealth Games, recalling that in 1966 in Jamaica when Christchurch was seeking the Games, it had reported Queen Elizabeth Park as the ideal site for a Games pool. “In March this year, the Mayor said that a pool in the eastern suburbs was an] urgent necessity. He did not mention it in his election opening. “We are going to build a heated, lido pool on the centennial Pool site, and a covered pool at Queen Elizabeth Park. If the Mayor is sincere, the Citizens’ Association must build a covered pool on the Centennial site and a lido-type pool at Queen Elizabeth Park. "the cost of our poolsports stadium will be no more than the reconstructed Centennial Pool and the stadium at the Merry Estate. It will be about $3.5m in both cases,” Mr Pickering said. Mona Vale plan Replying to questions, Mr Pickering said that the Labour Party had always been against the purchase of Mona Vale as it would be an added burden on ratepayers. A Labour council would sell some of the land. “If that took the costs of the homestead and grounds off the ratepayers, then Mona Vale will continue. If not, then Mona Vale will be sold.”

He had always considered that the site would be a good one for a high-rise hotel, Mr Pickering said. Selling some of the land for that purpose might bring in enough money for the upkeep of the rest.

The new library might be built more cheaply in the Univeristy town site buildings. A new library was needed.