Limit sought on designations

Press, 26 March 1980, Page 6

Limit sought on designations

Designations on houses for public works. such as roadways should be limited to five years, said the member of Parliament for St Albans (Mr D. F. Caygill) last evening. He told a “stop the motorway” meeting organised by the St Albans Residents’ Association that some people in St Albans had had designations on their properties for up to 20 years. There should be compensation for those whose prop-

erties lost value by being in an area designated for works.

The meeting agreed on proposals for a collective submission on the Christ* church City Council’s district-scheme review opposing the northern arterial road through St Albans. It felt that with good traffic management existing roads provided sufficient access.

The fuel crisis meant that traffic volumes were likely to decrease and the population of Christchurch would probably not reach the predicted level of 360,000 by 2001.

Funds should be diverted into alternatives such as cycleways, public transport, improved railway services, car-pooling schemes, and traffic management.

A city councillor, Mr D. J. Rowlands,. said after the meeting that the association planned to make a survey of people whose homes were affected by designations. The survey would try to determine their attitude to the proposed motorway and whether they thought the area had deteriorated because of the designation. The City Council’s Town Planner (Mr M. J. Brooks) also addressed the, meeting, which was attended by about 30 people.