Delay sought in bus-route hearing

Press, 29 April 1982, Page 3

Delay sought in bus-route hearing

The Canterbury United Council will be 'asked to appeal for a delay in the hearing of the Christchurch Transport Board's bid to tak’e over Midland Coachlines’ North Canterbury bus routes. The application is due to be heard by the No. 9 Transport District Licensing Authority on May 17, but some of North Canterbury's councils want it postponed. The five councils between the Waimakariri and Ashley rivers want the United Council to seek a two-month stay of the hearing. The extension would give local authorities time to prepare submissions if thev wished, said the Mayor of Rangiora, Mrs D. M. Harris. The councils would have more time to work out the implications of any changes in transport services. Representatives of the Eyre and Oxford county concils, the Rangiora District Council, and the Kaiapoi and Rangiora borough councils recently met members of the United Council's urban transport committee to discuss the matter. The councils are concerned that the arrangements between Midland and the Transport Board have been too hurried. The Kaiapoi Borough Council and the Rangiora District Council have also said that private operators should have been given more chance to apply for the routes. The councils are worried that any extensions in Transport Board services would involve a corresponding increase in its rating area.