‘Gutsful’ of council

Press, 6 July 1977, Page 1

‘Gutsful’ of council

Residents of Marion Street, Hoon Hay, are angry about what they consider to be inactivity on the part of the City Council to improve local drains. . They blame hill subdivisions for silting up their drains, and have formed a residents’ association to press their case. Floodwaters yesterday afternoon still filled Marion Street, part of Gainsborough street, Copenhagen Place, and a short stretch of Sparks Road at its intersection with Gainsborough Street. According tO „ F ‘. ‘ Cooke, of 29 Manon Street residents have “about had a gutsful of the council.” For 15 years they had been trying to get something done. "The roads and pavements are in shocking condition anvway. he said. “They have been promising to improve them, but nothing ever gets done. But it didn t take them long to put up the rates this year. Mr Cooke said the water was supposed to be going away via fhe ,°P en Drainage Board drairi at the back of his property, to the Heathcote River It takes spring wa ter about 200 yards further up. and at the moment there is no flow at all.

There appears to be nothing but spring water in the drain just now,” he said.

He said that water bubbling up, and forcing itself up through the floodwaters in the middle of Marion Street, was from a sewer, and during the morning one resident had found toilet paper on her front door step. Although water had entered only one house, Mr Cooke said it was impossible to get cars on to the road from most houses, and that had kept people home from work. He said the problem was silt from subdivisions, such as Worsleys Spur, blocking the Heathcote River and holding up the water in the drain. Mr Cooke has got in touch with 50 of the 60 residents in the street, and they have formed a residents’ association, with the intention of pushing for the improvements they want to the drainage. “We have had a flood like this two or three times before, but usually it is gone in six to eight hours,” Mr Cooke said.

The flooded Lake Forsyth has been successfully breached, and yesterday morning the waters were roaring out to sea. The highway to Little River, around the lake, was

opened to traffic in the afternoon and all families moved out were back in their homes last evening. All power had been restored to Banks Peninsula yesterday, except for fewer than a dozen homes in Gough’s Bay and Long Bay, to be done by last evening. At the height of the storm the Central Canterbury Electric Power Board had about 100 men in the field attending to faults.

It will be several days before the heavy layer of clay is cleared from Waimea Terrace, Eastern Terrace, Ashgrove Terrace, Riverlaw Terrace, Aynsley Terrace, Richardson Terrace, and Clarendon Terrace.

It will also be several days before all the clay is removed from the affected streets of Sumner. All main roads in Heathcote and Mount Herbert counties were open yesterday, but motorists were being told to drive with extreme care. The southern Summit Road dropped away in three places, as did Dyers Pass Road. The largest slips in each road are about 20 m across. Both roads are covered with mud, but passable.

More reports. Page 6. Pictures, Pages, 3,6, 22, 30.