Go-ahead on tip-closing in time for new runway

Press, 24 August 1983, Page 1

Go-ahead on tip-closing in time for new runway

The Sawyers Arms Road refuse tip will probably close next March, when the Christchurch Airport runway extension is opened, a Christchurch City Council committee heard yesterday. Airline pilots have threatened not to use the extended runway because of what they say is a bird hazard from the tip. The chairman of the public utilities committee, Cr Rex Lester, said agreement to close the tip had been reached at a meeting with Waimairi District Council representatives on Monday. The agreement will now go before both councils for final approval.

Cr Lester said the details

of the agreement would be discussed at the next meeting of the Christchurch City Council’s resource recovery committee on Monday. The meeting was attended by Cr Lester, Cr D. C. Close, Cr K. Lowe, the Waimairi District Council chairman, Mr D. B. Rich, the chairman of the Metropolitan Refuse Disposal Committee, Mr I. G. Clark, and engineering staff from both councils.

Cr Lester said representatives of the New Zealand Airline Pilots’ Association were not at the meeting.

The association told a Planning Tribunal hearing yesterday that it would boycott the runway extension if the tip was not closed. The pilots say birds feeding at

the tip are a hazard to aircraft and they want it closed by March, 1984. Cr Lester said a recommendation had been made to both councils to alter timetables for transfer stations and landfill sites. Mr Rich said last evening that the recommendation to close the tip would go before his council’s works committee at its meeting on September 5. “I expect that meeting to receive the information and adopt the proposals,” he said.

Mr Rich said both councils had resolved all outstanding issues and the agreement to close the tip would not create problems for Waimairi ratepayers. Hearing details, page 5