Fears over transport role of United Council allayed

Press, 12 July 1979, Page 2

Fears over transport role of United Council allayed

-No rural local authority could be made to meet the costs of Christchurch city transport if the Canterbury United Council became an urban transport authority, the Minister of Local Government (Mr Highet) told the inaugural meeting of the United Council yesterday. * Twe n t y-six appointed members of the council’s 19 constituent local authorities and about 80 invited guests were present. Mr Highet and the Director of Civil Defence tMajor-General R. H. Holloway) addressed the council. S Mr Highet was referring to the draft urban transport bill which proposes that United Councils in the five main centres set up and thaintain efficient urban transport systems incorporating all public and private bodies moving people and goods.

- “I am assured there is nothing in the bill requiring local authorities not benefited by urban services, to pay for them,” Mr Highet raid.

Nothing in the draft could abolish the Christchurch Transport Board. However, the council could become the urban bus operator if the Transport Board wanted to become defunct and transfer its responsibilities to the United Council. The board would have to submit its proposals to the Local Government Commission, which would then have to consult interested parties. The commission could not initiate the move. Mr Highet said.

After the meeting, Mr Highet agreed that the proposed bill contravened the

Local Government Act by miking the proposed additional transport function mandatory. This pre-empted the formula laid down in the Local Government Act for the assumption of additional functions. He did not want to comment on another Minister’s bill, he said, but he and the Minister of Transport (Mr McLachlan) would have to resolve “these sorts of conflicts.”

The chairman of the United Council, Mr C. N. MacKenzie, said the bill was bad in that it thrust another mandatory function on the council before it had even “got started.” The Mayor of Christchurch (Mr H. G. Hay) said local authorities had grave misgivings about the domination by bureaucrats of the executive Urban Transport Council in Wellington. “This is the body with final control of the pursestrings,” he said. The council set up a special committee to examine the bill’s proposals, and make a submission by the end of the month. Cr I. G. Clark (Waimairi) said it was creditable that the Government was “devolving its powers away from the centre,” but this was fruitless without transfer of Government money. “The United Council must lobby for a share of the Government’s tax revenue,” he said. “In Australia, local authorities receive about 2 per cent of state tax.” Mr Highet told the council that it was the first to absorb an existing regional planning authority, and so would be watched with a

“great deal of critical interest,” The council was not to be a “new empire;” it merely provided the machinery for expression of regional interests. The council was not to usurp the functions of its constituent local authorities, but to co-ordinate them, he said. An administrative hotchpotch would be avoided by requiring the administering authority — the Christchurch City Council —- to provide all the staff, accommodation, and other services the Ur..,ed Council needed.

This would not give the City Council a policy-making advantage; the United Council would decide its own business.

Mr Highet said that New Zealand’s other six united councils were developing close rapport with ad hoc bodies and other regional organisations.

“There are signs that in some cases they may well become much closer together before too long,” he said. Major-General R. H. F. Holloway said the assumption of a Civil Defence role by united councils protected the right of constituent local authorities to deal with civil defence in their own districts.

The council elected Mr C. N. Mackenzie (Hurunui) its chairman on a $3OOO annual honararium. Mr T. J. Brocherie (Akaroa) was elected deputy chairman. The council set up a special committee to examine the transfer of Regional Planning Authority functions, staffing, budget, energy distribution, and insurance.