Legal opinion on Styx drainage

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33052, 20 October 1972, Page 14

Legal opinion on Styx drainage

“Strong reservations” on whether the Waimairi County Council should itself decide that adequate provision for stormwater drainage had not been made in the Styx River area—and therefore refuse to approve scheme plans—have been expressed in a legal opinion from the council’s solicitors, the council was informed last evening. The council’s town planning committee reported that the solicitors had been asked about the council’s power to I decline scheme plans in the Papanui, Harewood, and Styx ridings until remedial work on flood protection in the lower reaches of the Styx River had been carried out. The reply was that the council was required to refuse scheme plans if it felt adequate provision had not been made for stormwater drainage. But in the district in question, the Christchurch Drainage Board had jurisdiction on questions of stormwater disposal, and all subdivisional proposals were referred to it, the solicitors said. If the board indicated it was prepared to accept stormwater from a particular subdivision, it was scarcely appropriate for the council to override the board. In any case, the board had now indicated it would accept run-off from subdivisions within the present residential zone only, and would be gravely concerned if subdivisions should be extended to the present rural area. The council decided to in-

vite its representatives on the Drainage Board to meet the council’s standing committee for discussion on flooding and remedial work in the lower reaches of the Styx River.