Port to be N-free zone

Press, 10 March 1982, Page 1

Port to be N-free zone

Lyttelton Borough will probably become a "nuclearfree" zone. Members of the council’s finance committee agreed at a meeting yesterday that the idea was good, and that it should be further discussed at a full council meeting next week. Discussion arose after councillors heard that Mr S. Hemsley had written to the council asking that the borough and port be made nuclear-free. The chairman of the committee. Cr M. Cretney, said it would be a good idea to make the borough nuclearfree “just on principle.” Devonport was the only other nuclear-free borough in the country, she said. The Mayor of Lyttelton, Mr M. E. Foster, also agreed with the principle of the idea, but said that being nuclear-free would have no effect on any. nuclear ships which might come to port. No nuclear ship would touch the borough’s boundaries because the harbour and wharves were controlled by the Lyttelton Harbour Board. Cr G. Adams said that being nuclear-free would be a “good way of making a point" that nuclear ships and facilities were not welcome in the area. It was decided to write to Mr Hemsley saying that the port was not within the council’s jurisdiction.