No road funds from Budget likely

Press, 25 May 1977, Page 3

No road funds from Budget likely

The National Roads Board is unlikely to receive extra funds from the Budget to help it with this year’s reading programme. The Minister of Works and Development and chairman of the National Roads Board (Mr W. L. Young) told members of the Oxford County Council during yesterday’s part of this week’s tour of the No. 14 Roads District that he was “not optimistic over the Budget.” He said, however, that he would talk to his Cabinet colleagues about more funds for the board, and hoped there would be something in the Supplementary Estimates. Mr Young said the board would receive “as of right” its funds of SI24M, but this was SI6M less than had been anticipated.

The board and the executive of the No. 14 Roads District Council visited four county councils and two borough councils, and in-

spected roads and bridges which the various councils wanted brought to the board’s attention.

As might be expected, there was a plea for extra Roads Board subsidy from each council. In reply to the Minister, all except three said they could match board finance if it became available.

The Rangiora and Kaiapoi boroughs and Rangiora County said their needs for extra roading money were accute because of their growth. There was a need for some form of direct Government grant because subsidies could not De matched from rates.

Mr T. Inch, chairman of the Rangiora County Council, said rates would yield $lBB,OOO this year, and $lOO,OOO would be spent on roads “in one way or another.” He made a special plea for Lineside Road, which he said was a main access route from Christ-

church and a road being used by more and more heavy trucks. Mr Inch said problems were also being aggravated by the development of the Canterbury Timber Products’ fibreboard mill at Ashley. His council had been looking for a route which could be selected and improved to take this traffic, to prevent heavy trucks breaking up all th: roads in the county. “This traffic, and other traffic which is generated by the factory, plus the everincreasing size of trucks in general, is causing the roads in the area to pack-up very fast,” Mr Inch said. The Minister told the three councils that they had not made their problems known strongly enough, particularly about the chip mill. They should put their plans on the supplementary list and “get them to us via the No. 14 District Roads Council, as a matter of urgency.” “I am favourably disposed

to the problems of the Rangiora, Kaiapoi, and Woodend areas because of their growth,” Mr Young said. “They are a special case.”