Candidates’ views on environment

Press, 26 August 1977, Page 9

Candidates’ views on environment

The environment places its own limits on the population a city can support, according to the Values Party candidate for the East ward of the Christchurch City Council, Mr B, L. Efford. He told a forum on Christchurch environmental issues that while the risk of greater air pollution put limits on the number of cars and open fires, there was also limit to the amount of stormwater catchment that could be built on without making flooding an annual event.

There was also a limit to the amount of disturbance that hillside soil could tolerate without eroding and slipping. “Our experience this winter shows we have already gone beyond these limits,” said Mr Efford. The Citizens’ candidate for the East ward, Mr J. A. McMillan, said that the council had to help to create a balanced community. It could do this by ensuring as wide a range of housing designs as possible, variation in the position of houses and

sections, maintenance of high building standards, and prompt development of footpaths and borders. He was determined not to allow an indifferent attitude towards residential development at the south end of Linwood Avenue. In Aranui, opposite the old Pages Road entrance to the rubbish dump, lowcost housing had been established with such complete disregard for the environment that it had degenerated into a “rapidly progressing slum area.” Within the next two years and a half, St Albans would be fighting for its very survival as a suburb, said the Labour candidate for the North ward, Mr D. J. Rowlands.

The planned northern motorway was a major environmental issue, as it would slice the north of Christchurch in two and destroy the identity of the neighbourhood. More than 300 houses were to be demolished for the motorway which would bring heavy trucks with noise, danger, and pollution.

Mrs N. Massey, the Labour Party candidate for the Pegasus ward, said that she wanted a green belt established between the existing residential area and the proposed industrial park tn Bexley, This land could be planted with trees and provide a buffer zone as well as playgrounds tor children. Troubled by cigarette butts thrown away by people boarding buses, Mrs Massey asked if ashtrays could be provided in Cathedral Square for bus patrons. The recycling of domestic rubbish and action to ensure that rubbish dumps could not be sited close to residential areas such as Bexley were two environmental issues the Citizens’ candidate for the Pegasus ward, Mrs C. J. Evans, would like to see tackled. However, it was environmentalists and residents who should inform local-body members of environmental problems and suggest solutions.

“The environment is far too important to be used by candidates and parties for political gain.” Mrs Evans said.