Planning Authority closes

Press, 1 April 1980, Page 6

Planning Authority closes

The Canterbury Regional Planning Authority closed yesterday, 25 years after it started. Begun in 1955 in a scaleddown form (it had -covered only Christchurch and surrounding local bodies), the authority expanded in 1974. But it now has been absorbed by the Canterbury United Council. The chairman of the authority (Mr D. B. Rich) warned against future compromising of the authority’s principles, and said it probably had made more progress towards effective regional planning', than any other New Zealand organisation. ’ “This is not: an end, oply a step along the way,” Mr Rich said. He is now chairman of the United Council’s regional planning committee. The job was still the same, he said, and would never be easy. “We leave a challenge to the United Council to do as well,” he said, "or if possible, do better.” Good regional., planning was a framework for district plans. If local bodies did not provide that framework, the job might be done by the Government. / All regional .planning representatives would be sub-

[ jected to political pressures, Mr Rich said. It was import- : ant for them to keep a res gional viewpoint; no matter what district or organisation they represented. •‘Decisions must be/’far- > sighted, and compromises do not lead to good planning/’ • he said. ' / The authority’s first chairman (Mr E. J. Bradshaw), a : former Mayor of Riccarton, remembered local-bodysus-picions surrounding : the authority when it' was formed. Many of the same suspicions exist today, with some United Council members wondering how many changes they can make under the new system, Mr Bradshaw said, "I am a square, and as such I resent change for change’s sake.” He hoped the good work done by the authority would not be changed after the transfer. Mr H. G. Hay praised the work done by Mr Rich in a role that was "not the most sought-after or popular position.”'*.- r-'2