Opposing views on extended mill hours

Press, 25 February 1977, Page 6

Opposing views on extended mill hours

The withdrawing of restric-; tions on the running hours of|i a chip mill company in Hare-I (wood would allow it to func-j< tion efficiently and cope withll all the wind-blown timber 11 available, a sub committee of; i the Waimairi County Council 11 was told last evening. :t Canterbury Forest Indus- [i tries, Ltd. has applied to the ' council for a specified departure from the district scheme ■< 'to allow it to operate its mill 11 [in Sawyers Arms Road with' l • unrestricted hours. h Its case and objections 1 were heard at the meeting. ’ There were eight formal ob- 1 • jections from a total of more.; than 200 individuals, most of H them living in Sawyers Arms Road. About 40 persons at-' tended the hearing. The company’s chairman of[ directors (Mr R. C. Halliday), told the hearing that the com-; ' nany required greater flexibility of hours to cope with addi-i tional supplies as they became' available, such as the wind-' 'blown timber from the storm' in August, 1975. He said that the company' also wanted to be able to 1 i: cope with emergency situations when it had to provide! I additional material at rela-. • tively short notice, such as • the unexpected early arrival j of a ship or to make up pro-; ■duction time lost through; breakdown and maintenance! I. periods. The company had a con-; '[tract with the Marubeni Cor-I i poration of Japan for 50.000' - tonnes of wood chips a year,; he said. > The company had recently; I ■ been prosecuted for working l - outside the permitted hours. 1

Mr N. S. Maffey, the com-, pany’s general manager, said' that over the last 18 months; about 35,000 tonnes of wind-, blown material had been taken in. Export earnings to date! from trading were SI.3M, hei said, and anticipated earnings' were $BOO,OOO to SIM each! year from now on. The acting general manager: of the Selwyn Plantation' Board (Mr W. P. Studholme)! said that the recovery of wind-blown timber in the board’s plantation area had virtually ceased because Canterbury Forest Industries was unable to take any more chip Hogs. • About 40 per cent of thetotal windblown timber had still to be recovered. Mr A. B. Carpenter, the operations manager for ; Freightways Road Services i Canterbury, Ltd. gave evidence that if the chip mill 'was granted longer hours his company would be able to cope with the transportation of all the chip material 'within a 12 hour working day. This was provided that [the most direct route, down | Sawyers Arms Road, was used. Making submissions on be- [ half of 140 residents in the (Sawyers Arms Road area, Mr D. J. Boyle said that to grant (application would be grossly unfair to the objectors and to other residents along the I route used by the trucks. “The use of the vehicles with unrestricted hours would ibe utterly intolerable to the (occupants of the houses.” he 'said.

If the application was granted it would depreciate the value of the properties of the objectors. “Their housing is one of their principal assets to which their life savings have been devoted to acquire, and it would be unfair that their properties could be devalued in such a way by the work of the company.” Some of the objectors believed that the application had been brought by the company to legalise the present use of these vehicles outside the restricted hours’that had been granted to it, Mr Boyle said.

Chips carried by the trucks I were often blown off the decks and scattered over the roadway, lawns and gardens of the residents. Ornaments had also been damaged by [the vibrations caused by the 1 trucks he said. A letter from the Canterbury Regional Planning Authiority was read to the meeting. In it. the authority said that an increase in the hours of work of the mill could have considerable effect on the residents along the roads. The authority would support the council if it declined the application. A report from the Road Transport Division of the Ministry of Transport was also read to the meeting, recommending that the council reject the application.

The sub-committee of the council comprised councillors 1. Calvert (chairman), I. G. Clark, and H. M. Tait. The decision was reserved.