Rise in power price foreseen

Press, 18 July 1979, Page 3

Rise in power price foreseen

Electricity and gas prices will increase greatly if the Government dismantles power boards, according to the chairman of the Central Canterbury Electric-Power Board (Mr L. P. Manion) yesterday. The function of boards [would be taken over by the united councils, he said. Price rises were inevitable if this happened, he said, because the revenue from electricity and gas could be used [to subsidise the councils’ [other activities. “There is just no other way out of it.” If the united councils did not want to take over electricity distribution, said Mr Manion — and some member councils had said so already — the Government could compel them to do so. The draft of the new Local Government Amendment Bill gave the Government more power to compel united councils to accept such responsibilities, he said. The Government had already said the united councils would take responsibility for water reticulation in their areas, he said. Resii dents and ratepayers had been denied the opportunity to decide. “A united council was obviously an undemo-

| cratically elected body,” Mr! Manion said. I The Canterbury United! | Council had, after only one meeting, shown signs that it wanted to move into the energy field, he said. The papers from the recent energy distribution seminar the council had selected for study were al! in favour of united councils’ taking over energy distribution. Those local bodies in i favour of the united councils] taking over power dis-; tribution, said Mr Manion, | were mostly small and could j be having problems breaking] even on their power respon-! sibilities. One of the few local-body • leaders to realise and oppose the Government’s intention of breaking-up the structure of local bodies was the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr H. G. Hay), said Mr Manion. Mr Manion’s comments were made in his report to the monthly meeting of the board. The board voted to receive the report and pass it to the national association of power boards. The board also decided to prepare submissions on the Local Government Amend- j ment Bill and have them] ready for presentation byj August 7. I*