Heathcote County declares a nuclear-free zone

Press, 27 April 1984, Page 5

Heathcote County declares a nuclear-free zone

Heathcote County became New Zealand’s seventy-ninth nuclear weapons-free zone last evening. The decision was made only on the casting vote of the chairman, Mr O. T. Alpers. All seven councillors at the monthly meeting were in favour of a works committee recommendation that the council consult Civil Defence authorities to ensure that Civil Defence was able to instruct citizens in the consequences of nuclear war, accidents, fallout, and the dumping of wastes. Councillors also favoured urging the Government to pursue an active peacemaking policy which would include urging the nuclear Powers seriously to begin nuclear disarmament. Cr M. J. Taylor recommended that the declaration of a nuclear weapons-free zone be deleted from the other recommendations. She argued that the Government was already working towards achieving a nuclearfree Pacific. The council was not meant to “fly off the handle making unilateral declarations we are not here to make,” she said. Crs F. R. Chapman and R.

Simcock supported Cr Taylor. Cr Chapman said that one had only to think of what had happened in World War II to realise that disarmament had to come from “both sides of the fence.” Cr Simcock said that the declaration of a nuclear weapons-free zone would be “more or less a negative attitude,” while the other parts of the recommendation were more positive. Cr M. C. C. Buchanan, an active supporter of nuclear disarmament said that while she understood Cr Taylor’s view, the declaration of a nuclear weaponsfree zone was an important gesture. Cr Taylor’s motion was lost on the casting vote of Mr Alpers, who said that while he felt the council had no jurisdiction to ban nuclear weapons he was prepared to go along with the idea. “I don’t think anyone is really going to take it very seriously,” he said. United Council Mr Alpers, the council’s representative on the Canterbury United Council, told the Heathcote council that cuts in the United Council’s budget could not be sus-

tained. “The most objectionable aspect in my view was that the cuts were arbitrary and the incidence of the cuts were left to be determined by the staff,” he said. One of the main problems was that most of the United councillors were new and inexperienced and did not fully understand the council’s functions. Mr Alpers said that although the cuts would have a big effect on the United Council, the benefit to ratepayers would be small—about 13c to 14c a head of population a year. Heathcote’s contribution would be reduced $1258, in an over-all 6.3 per cent cut in the United Council’s budget. Mr Alpers said that the cost-cutting had been led by representatives of the Waimairi District Council. The United Council had dropped almost completely out of planning applications, because of the cuts, he said. A serious problem arising from that was that if the council did not lodge objections it did not have a right of appeal, and so its watchdog role would be adversely affected to the detriment of regional planning. Pool By-law The council formally adopted the Heathcote County Restriction of Access to Private Swimming Pools By-law, 1984. It requires that from June all swimming pools in the county, including spa pools,

must be fenced in accordance with the by-law. An important clause provides for dispensation at the discretion of ,the council where fencing “is not reasonably possible.” In such cases the safety of children must be adequately protected by an alternative. The by-law specifies minimum requirementts for pool covers, which could be an adequate alternative if they comply with the by-law. Dump charges Increased charges at the county rubbish dump were approved. The cost of dumping a car boot full of rubbish will rise 50 per cent from May to $1.50, while a light trailer load will cost $4, compared with $3 now. The increase is in line with increases already announced by the Christchurch Metropolitan Refuse Disposal Committee.