No ‘agreed’ transport plan, says Mayor

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32977, 25 July 1972, Page 14

No ‘agreed’ transport plan, says Mayor

The City Council had never said that proposed changes to the Christchurch master transport plan had been approved, said the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr N. G. Pickering) yesterday.

He was replying to a statemen by the chairman of the

Waimairi County Council (Mr D. B. Rich) that the City Council had been telling people that its proposed changes were, in fact, approved. “That remark of Mr Rich's to his council meeting last week is absolutely untrue,” Mr Pickering said. “We have not been telling people that

the City Council’s changes have been approved. How can the changes have been approved when they have not yet been before the Christchurch Regional Planning Authority. Mr Rich is the very man who must know that, as he is chairman of the authority.” Mr Pickering said that Mr Rich must know that the master transport plan was no longer an “agreed plan,” as he had described it. The city ratepayers had voted “in no uncertain terms” against a road across the park which was “the keystone” of the master transport plan for the city. “It was a major plank in the Labour Party’s policy that there should be no road across the park and we were elected on that policy. We shall carry it out —therefore there is no agreed plan,’’ Mr Pickering said. He said the City Council expected the second traffic survey by the planning authority to be carried out first. “But that should not delay Consideration of a change of plan because of no road through the park and increasing opposition in the city to elevated roadways near the inner city area. “The city ratepayers, with a National Roads Board subsidy, would have paid for a road through a park—no other body on the planning authority would have contributed. Games pool “I understand that a meeting between the City Council and the Waimairi County Council has been suggested. I think it should take place. We have a lot of things to talk over,” Mr Pickering said. "I hope that the Waimairi County Council will pay its full contribution to the Games complex. “Waimairi promised to pay $195,000 towards the pool. We explained the plans for the Queen Elizabeth Park Complex on March 30 and left the plans at Waimairi for a long time for the council experts to examine. "We had no complaints or recommendations. The technical committee has since met twice, with Waimairi represented,” said Mr Pickering.

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