Act ’used by minorities’

Press, 21 November 1979, Page 3

Act ’used by minorities’

PA Oamaru The Town and Country Planning Act was used by minority groups to inflict their views on the majority and to keep “major decisions tied up in the courts,” the National member for Waitaki (Mr J. H. Elworthy); told the Twizel Community Council’s annual meeting. The National Development! Bill, on which submissions were being heard before the. Lands and Agriculture Committee in Wellington, would overcome that, he said. Mr Elworthy suggested that construction of hydro- 1 electric schemes on “ the lower Waitaki River should proceed, but the devel-i iopmen t Clutha hydro'

scheme should be left in its “legal morass.” Maui was a finite resource which would last about 30 years, but hydro development was renewable and “must not be crowded out.” “I wonder if we should acknowledge that the Clutha is tied up in the courts, and put the lower Waitaki on a fast track and get on with it,” Mr Elworthy said. He believed that that would be a logical step as the National Development Bill could not be applied to the Clutha project. Planning for the lower Waitaki was well advanced. The contractors, workers, skills, and machinery were already assembled on the A

: upper Waitaki power devel-! lopment and he believed the icommunities on both sides. [of the river would support | going ahead with the lower! (Waitaki. The Waitaki Catchment : Commission was spending large sums of money just to (keep the river -“in its regime.” The area from Timaru to Oamaru and through to Twizel depended on the capital ! and wages coming out of the upper Waitaki, Mr Elworthy j -said. Multi-purpose planning (could be applied to the lower Waitaki with recrea-i tion. commercial fishing, irrigation, and the release of: (land for up to 30 farms as; (part of the development. 1