Grant for facilities for small boats

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33478, 8 March 1974, Page 12

Grant for facilities for small boats

Improvements for small craft at Lyttelton received a boost on Wednesday when it was noted that the Lyttelton Harbour Board had received a grant of $3750 from Government funds towards the construction of a slipway at Purau.

The grant came from funds to assist recreational and sporting activities and will enable an earlier completion of the slipway, work on which has already begun. Filling for the slipway is coming from road-widening works near the site.

The grant will also enable other work-to advance, as it will, free some of the board’s own $7500 budget for small boat amenities. The chairman of the board’s small craft committee (Mr J. Mannering) said after Wednesday’s board meeting that a project which would be likely to be advanced is a jetty for Charteris Bay. Preliminary costings had already been done for the jetty, and these suggested an investment of $6500.

“It is plainly a matter of priorities, but "the Charteris Bay jetty has a good claim for being the next project of the small craft commitfee as soon as finance becomes available,” Mr Mannering said.

There are several jetties in the bay, many of which have been there for years and which are in an unsafe condition. None were erected with the board’s consent.

It was recognised that a

good jetty was needed in the. bay and although the price; might seem high, the board could not put up a “packing case affair,” said Mr Manner- | ing. Finance restricted most of the board’s efforts in this area, so that the $3750 grant was particularly welcome. “It is my continuing disappointment that we cannot find a way in which smallboat owners could contribute towards the cost of putting improvements for their own benefit,” he said, referring to unsuccessful moves by the board for a user-pays system on slipways provided by the board.