Threat to scheme 'no surprise’

Press, 10 March 1982, Page 6

Threat to scheme 'no surprise’

The Waimairi County Council’s threat to withdraw from the metro refuse scheme did not surprise or unduly concern the Metropolitan Refuse Disposal Committee. Wiamairi delivered an ultimatum on Monday that the northern transfer station should be reinstated as the next priority or the council would pull out of the scheme after May 1. “I certainly anticipated that there would be this sort of outburst which we have come to expect from Waimairi County. Council,” said the committee chairman, Cr H. A. Clark, yesterday. The committee Would be ■obliged to take the.council tocourt if it withdraw ait short notice, without giving the required 12 months notice and paying its fees for that time. The flare-up came v after the committee decided to go ahead, with -the eastern "transfer’ station . next,, in place of the northern station. “I don’t think we candismiss this entirely but I am’confident that the full.

council will see that it has over-reacted and doesn’t want to lay itself open to claims for damages,” said Cr Clark. “The council is in the some position as all local .authorities, if it is hot happy with the scheme it can pull out — but legally,” he said. “One thipg which I didn’t particularly like is the politi-cal-style blackmailing that they are using. “If their manoeuvering results in any extra costs to their ratepayers they could be the subject of some action by the Auditor-General,” he said. The eastern transfer station was going ahead first because no site could be fou nd for the northern station and the .committee could not afford delays to the scheme. “The perogative for finding the third site must now primarily lay with the Waimairi County Council and it can’t use a third party like the committee to take the blame,” he said. “They have turned down a minimum of four, and probably six, transfer station sites that the committee re-

ferred to the council.” Cr Clark said only the Waimairi councillors seemed to be clamouring for a northern transfer station. The residents had successfully opposed siting the station in their areas and had not been demanding a new site. “The sad part of all this is the failure by the Waimairi County Council to reach forward into the future in planning for the metropolitan refuse scheme,” he said. “I feel that they have got to grow up a bit and learn to accept democratic decisions by the metropolitan refuse committee.” The pity was that some councillors were stubbornly refusing to allow any changes to the origina’l refuse scheme. “We’ve got to get the 10 year programme finished otherwise we could be arguing about refuse disposal for the next 25 years,” said Cr Clark. The Waimairi County chairman Cr D. B. Rich, said yesterday that the council was not worried about legal action if it withdrew from the scheme. “It’s not a game that we want to get into but we are not afraid of that,” he said. “We are not being difficult. We are objecting to having the original scheme changed on us without any agreement.” Waimairi councillors at present had no confidence in the refuse committee and doubted that the northern ’transfer station would ever be built, said Cr Rich. The council wanted the northern station reinstated on the schedule and airtight guarantees for completion from the committee. Cr Rich said he would be discussing the problem with other local authorities to try and reverse the committee decision.