Action promised on drain

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33673, 24 October 1974, Page 18

Action promised on drain

“We are sick of waiting. We have been waiting six months for this bloody thing to be fixed up, and we are not waiting any longer,” one of the speakers at a street meeting of people living near Rowley Avenue, Hoon Hay, said yesterday.

The meeting, called to discuss the piping and fencing of a drain bounding houses near Rowley Avenue, was attended by about 30 residents, the Mayor-elect of Christchurch (Mr H. G.

Hay), the Minister of Railways (Mr Bailey), Mr K. T. Wetere, M.P. for Western Maori, and Mr John Kirk, Labour candidate in the Sydenham by-election. Mr D. Bartlett, for the

Hoon Hay Area Action Committee, said that residents of Salmon Street and Callan Street, where 15 houses have 43 small children between them, regarded the drain as a danger to health, and a danger to children’s lives. Another spokesman said i the Mayor (Mr N. G. Pickering) had undertaken to have > a fence built, but a check had shown that the mat- : erials had not been ordered.

Mr Hay said he would persuade the Drainage Board to consider piping the drain, and would ask the City Council to erect a safety fence along it where it bounded houses near Rowley Avenue. There is a problem — all are agreed that the job of enclosing the drain is one for the Drainage Board. The : board was not represented. On one side of the drain are the houses, in Christchurch City. On the other is a dairy farm, in Paparua County. Mr Hay said it was quite clear that the piping of the drain "stopped with the Drainage Board.” He would see the board’s chairman (Mr M. R. Carter) and suggest that something should be done. He would like an undertaking, and it seemed extraordinary that nothing had been done. But, Mr Hay said there was a problem with the drain on the boundary between the two councils, but he would investigate the position. "I can’t say the fence will be built next week, but I agree that the drain is a health and life hazard, and I will get on with the job,” he said. “We will write to the Drainage Board, the City Council and the Paparua County Council, and anyone else we can think of,” said Mr R. Newth, secretary of the action committee. Mr Kirk, commenting on the absence of a Health Department representative, said that if necessary, he would discuss the health risk, in Wellington. The boundary of the electorate is Henderson’s Road, 100 yards from where the meeting took place.