New dump for Heathcote

Press, 9 June 1978, Page 4

New dump for Heathcote

; Work may start within a 'week on the Heathcote " County Council’s new rubbish dump, leaving the way ! clear for expansion of the Ferrymead Trust’s activities. j The council’s works and reserves committee agreed past evening provisionally to ; accept a tender of more than i $7600 from the construction firm of Maugers. Ltd, for the work. J The County Chairman (Mr J. M. McKenzie) said that i the firm would be asked to i construct a larger dump Than originally planned, as the funds which had been ! set aside for the project jwere more than the amount I Of tender. I The work entails clearing

a site in Truscotts Road near the present dump, and lining its bottom and sides with a seal of clay. The new dump will be built on land owned at present by the Ferrymead Trust. The trust plans eventually to make use of the built-up site of the existing dump, ■ which is at the end of Truscotts Road and will provide ■a hill in the centre of the i trust’s property. At present ;the dump is encircled by rail and tram tracks, and di’vides the two halves of the Trust’s activities: the display : halls and the model village. Mr McKenzie said it was imperative that the work on ithe new dump begin as soon; I as possible, as the council! i wanted to close the existing

. dump within "a few w'eeks." I; He hoped the new work ■ could begin within a week. ’! Mr McKenzie said also ! | that the underground fire i which had been burning at the dump for months was at ■ last under control. ■ : He announced at the coun- ; cil’s May meeting that fires at the county dump were no longer to be extinguished by I ‘county staff. If the dump J was on fire it was the Fire I ■ Service’s responsibility to; - extinguish it, not the (■county’s, he said. At the works committee’s; meeting last evening, Mr McKenzie said that the. .■county had been spending, 11up to $l2O an hour to con-! Itrol the fire when it had! ;! flared up. About $5OOO had!

been spent controlling it on : the two occasions w’hen major outbreaks had oc- ■ curred. • Now that the Fire Service! : had taken over the job, the! : fire had been brought under control, he said. “It is un- - fortunate that we spent all ; that money, when without ) expertise we were ncrt able Hto stop it,” he said. i The Fire Service had; :; poured millions of gallons of ■; water into the dump to extinguish it, with the aid of ■ county equipment, he said. | Mr McKenzie estimated • that it would have cost the i.county about $lOOO a day to ;.put the fire out altogether.. ■‘“The hire of earthmoving; |. machines alone comes to! Hslso per hour,” he said. I