Orana undercutting quarries

Press, 8 September 1982, Page 6

Orana undercutting quarries

’ Contractors who are quarrying shingle without charge at Orana Wildlife Reserve are able to undercut- an already depressed market to the detriment of quarryowners. the Paparua County Council has been told.

Paparua's quarry-owners were explaining their serious reservations about the council’s proposal that they redevelop their pits after mining. The council commissioned a landscape architect, Mr Earl Bennett, to study the county's 680 hectares of quarry land and to suggest methods of restoring it .when worked out. The first part of the three-part investigation was released recently.

- A meeting has since been held between representatives of the shingle-mining industry and the Council, to discuss the implications of the report'- . . The quarry-owners were told.tha|: the council.had two options in redevelopment. It

could enlist their support, or it could make quarrying a conditional use under the. district scheme. It is now designated an end use. Mr Neil Isaac, of the Isaac Construction Company, Ltd, told councillors that the material being mined at Orana Park was having a seriotis effect on “bona fide operators.” .The Orana Park Trust, to landscape the reserve, had invited contractors to remove shingle free of charge, he said later. They were able to undercut their competitors on the market because , they had fewer overheads.

They did not have to pay royalties on the shingle and they did not have to buy the land. * - . : ' ' Mr Isaac said that he had “no complaints” against the trust but the council should “exercise, more control over the county’s quarrying land.” The county planner, Mr K. G. Lawn, said that there was no way that the council could

close the shingle works at the park because it had existing-use rights.

However, measures contained within the proposed district scheme would prevent the establishment of any more pits, he said. A spokesman for the Aggregates Association, Mr E. Williams, said that the metal business was “pretty sick,” the volume of sales being more than 40 per cent lower than in 1977. Because the shingle mined at the park was “extremely cheap.” it was dominating the market. Most quarry-owners “readily accepted" their responsibility to the community to redevelop their worked-out pits to an appropriate standard but the council had floated the idea at the wrong time.

“While we. don't want to see anything done to the detriment of the park, it is a grievance because . we are being > asked to find funds toward re-establishing the

pits and we just do not have a market,” Mr Williams said.

The council should prohibit the. extraction of metal from the'park* and then'say, ‘Okay chaps, we have removed one of your sources of annoyance and now that you are back in business this is what you should be doing,” he said. There was little point in proceeding to stage two of the study until the issue had been resolved. The quarry-owners were also concerned about committing themselves to redeveloping their pits. without assurances of co-operation from the council. They had been asked to provide for the establishment of an end use while quarrying which involved "planning 20 years in advance.". Mr Williams said. "If the city boundary goes .much further out. the- pits will be surrounded by housing. What would be permitted then? There are a lot.of

questions to be answered." Much of the land is contained within the green belt and under • the district scheme its use is restricted to agricultural purposes. However, the mining industry has suggested that the council relax its policy to allow for “profitable or commercial” enterprises such as factories, hotels; and motels on the quarried land. Mr Lawn said after the meeting that the council might have to accept a wider range of activities than at present permitted to enlist the support of the quarryowners. “It.will have-to have a slightly more open mind than it has’had in the past." . .J Any move to amend the Ordinances would probably provoke opposition from the Canterbury United Council in defence of its regional scheme. “The council has a tightrope to walk." Mr Lawn said.