Pressure to shut Bexley tip

Press, 12 June 1978, Page 4

Pressure to shut Bexley tip

Christchurch Labour councillors have made it clear that they will not ease their pressure to have the Bexley rubbish tip closed earlier tnan scheduled. As a result, the City Council’s works and traffic committee want the metro* politan rubbish scheme landfill site brought into use before 1986, so that the Bex-' ley tip can be closed. The councillors said the metropolitan project should be staged so that a new landfill would come *‘on‘

• line” after the first transfer station was completed. “The landfill site should be the second priority,” said i Cr Vicki Buck. “Bexley resii dents are not prepared to ’ tolerate another eight : years.” Rubbish dumping at Bex- : ley could be stopped earlier ’ than 1986 if an alternative site were found, said the chairman of the works and . traffic committee (Cr NewI ton Dodge), or if more rubbish were dumped there, and, ' at a faster pace. i Minimum-fill levels for a

future golf course over; much of the Bexley tip should not determine how soon the tip would stay in a residential area, said Cr D. C. Close. That would be “a case of the tail wagging the dog.” Cr Noala Massey questioned the wisdom of continued dumping simply so that the final level could be transformed into a golf course. “Who is going to play golf there?” she asked. '“Many of the local residents could not afford it.” There!

were also several good courses nearby. According to a report by the council's services engineer (Mr L. D. B. Scantlebury). it would be necessary to find an alternative tipping site of about 70 acres if the Bexley tip were to be closed in three years. “It would be necessary to! use land in one of the neighhour ing local-authority areas,’, he said. “In the light of the proposed metropolitan scheme, it would seem most unlikely for such approval! |to be forthcoming.”