Protest on M.E.D. fund transfers

Press, 1 June 1981, Page 1

Protest on M.E.D. fund transfers

- A group formed to protest against the transfer of Municipal Electricity Department funds to. Christchurch City Council activities has called for public, donations. Called the B Fare Committee, the group said in a week-end newspaper advertisement that -consumers should “stop this massive rape of your electrical account” ‘ ■

They said that electricity ’in the metropolitan area •should be distributed through an autonomous power board elected-by consumers in the board’s district.

Any profits made by the M.E.D. should be used to reduce- power bills, help repay loans, and place power lines underground, the advertisement said.

A Royal Commission of Inquiry should also be set up to investigate the method of funding the new Civic Offices and Queen Elizabeth II Park, the protesters said. The committee’s secretary, Mr N. D. 0. Sandford, a Waimairi County resident, declined to explain the advertisement's backgrounds He said that any comment would have to come from the chairman, Mr Walter White, who was out of town until the middle of this week.

j He said that investigations : had been going on “for two years or more” before the 'call for public action was ■ made. j But he would not comment

on an assertion in the advertisement that appears to misinterpret the City Council’s, latest estimate. The advertisement says that , the council proposed to transfer $3,453,479 this, year from the M.E.D.’s trading account to offset debit accounts.

That' was “quite wrong,” said 'the M.E.D.’s general manager, Mr J. H. Donald, yesterday. The $3.4 million. figure is the M.E.D.’s estimated cash surplus for this financial year, but the total amount .will: not .be transferred. Only $300,000 will be transferred to the Queen Elizabeth II Park account to help cover its operating losses. Similar transfers have been made for some years by the City Council. There has been sporadic opposition. Some M.E.D. consumers outside the City Council boundary have ' been unhappy about money from ppwer bills going to the sports facility. City councillors have argued that Queen Elizabeth II Park is a regional facility that should not have to be financed by city ratepayers alone. t

The B Fare Committee has also’ objected to the previous council’s $1.25 million transfer from M.E.D. profits to help pay for the purchase of the new Civic Offices building and alterations. The decision to transfer the money was made in 1978.