Minister gives ruling on hill slips

Press, 15 September 1976, Page 1

Minister gives ruling on hill slips

The Schenkel family, of Hawkhurst Road, Lyttelton, heard last evening that the Minister of Works and Development (Mr W. L. Young) had ruled that the Lyttelton Borough Council was solely responsible for preventing the hillside slips which threaten to engulf their house.

For the third time this winter, the Schenkels spent last night away from their home because of the danger from slips. They spent the night in a disused railway house in St David Street, Lyttelton, with their neighbours, the Brandon family. The house was provided by the police and the Railways Department. Mr Schenkel said last evening that he had received a telephone call from the member of Parliament for Lyttelton (Miss C. E. Dewe), who read him the text of a letter from Mr Young in reply to an inquiry she had made. The letter had said that the council was solely and financially responsible for the full area of the borough of Lyttelton, Mr Schenkel said. Miss Dewe had said that since the storms of August, 1975, the council had been told twice by the Minister that slips were its full responsibility.

Miss Dewe had advised him that nothing should be done about the slips until an engineer had inspected the hillside and decided what should be done, Mr Schenkel said. It was no good using a front-end loader on the slips — as had been done late yesterday, until the vehicle bogged down — until proper soil tests had been done. Miss Dewe had said. She told Mr Schenkel that an engineer would come down from Wellington in the next day or two to inspect the hillside. Mrs Lena Schenkel said yesterday that she arrived home on Mondav evening, after attending a meeting of the Lyttelton Borough Council at which the plight of Hawkhurst Road residents was discussed, to find mud and water pouring over her back steps. She raced back to the council chambers, where the meeting was still in progress, to report her problems but council staff said that nothing could be done at that time of night. At 10 p.m., the police telephoned to say they knew of suitable alternative accommodation, but by the time arrangements had been made the Schenkels’ five children had been safely installed in a friend's house, Mrs Schenkel said. Now that rain has stop-

ped, the Schenkels and the Brandons will look to see if they can return to their homes today. Mrs Schenkel said that council promises of immediate aid had been a little disappointing. There had been much talk of a frontend loader and three trucks being provided to relieve the immediate danger, but when she went back to her home yesterday morning all she found were three men with shovels. "I told them they did not look much like a front-end loader and three trucks.” she said. “It was very disappointing. We were so buoyed up because we felt that at last something was being done.” However, Lyttelton’s Deputy Mayor (Mr R. H. Duffl said yesterday that there was a limit to what the council could do. The men could clear the road and road reserve, he said, but it was a different matter going on to private property.