R.P.A. ‘asks to be taken over’

Press, 26 May 1979, Page 3

R.P.A. ‘asks to be taken over’

The Canterbury Regional Planning Authority has prepared a report that it would like considered by the Canterbury United Council.

The report makes several recommendations on staffing and the structure of the united council. It was given approval at an executive meeting of the R.P.A. on Mav 22. Mr T. M. Inch, chairman of the Rangiora District Council, told a council meeting yesterday that basically the planning authority .was asking the United Council to take it over.

“The authority is asking them to run the system in much the same way as it was run in the past,” said Mr Inch.

The report asks that the authority’s staff be appointed to the United Council and that no other staff;

part-time or otherwise, be appointed. The authority feels that the planning committee of the United Council should be the whole coupc.il. Mr Inch said there was some merit in this as it would cut down the number of meetings and would allow complete coverage of the region. If one county wag not on a committee there was a risk of its being ignored, said Cr M. J. Harris.

Mr Inch urged members of the United Council to “get stuck in and make the most of it.” He was apprehensive about the cost of running the United Council but said that it was a matter of waiting and seeing how it went. The first meeting of the United Council will be on July 25.