Call for report on car-wrecking yard

Press, 25 July 1984, Page 6

Call for report on car-wrecking yard

A possible breach of planning laws by a car-wrecking business in Kaiapoi will be investigated by officers of the Kaiapoi Borough Council. TTie Town Clerk of Kaiapoi,’ Mr R. N. McCabe, told the council on Monday that residents next to the business should not have' to put up with what he had seen on the site. Cars were stacked along residential boundaries and in an area not permitted under the District Scheme. The business fronted Williams Street but was also using access from Stone Street He doubted whether legal access from Stone Street was permitted. No ramps across the curb had been installed at the accessways on Stone Street. Council officers visited the business on Monday after receiving complaints from residents. Mr McCabe said he had hoped the owner would have adopted “a better attitude” than he had done.

A report on the yard will be made to the council's town-planning committee next week. The council gave the committee power to act on the issue if the law had been broken. Because of the effect on residents and the procedures involved in taking action, Mr McCabe said it would be best for the council to move as quickly as possible. Councillors who had been in the area said the place was “a mess.” Toilets Allegations that the council had done nothing for 15 Sears about providing pubc toilets near the Pines Beach Surf Club building were rejected by -Mr McCabe and the chairman of the reserves committee, Cr A. H. Blackie. Cr H. G. McAllister said that offers had been made by the club and the Rangiora District Council to help pay for the toilets. The latest offer had been for 50 per cent of the cost.

“This has gone on for too long. It is about time we did something about it,” he said. Mr McCabe said that plans for the toilets had been drawn up and he was waiting for a cost estimate. The work would be done by periodic detention workers when they had finished toilets at the community centre. Letters asking for a share of the costs had been written to the District Council in 1977 and 1978. The project bad been delayed because the District Council did not have the finance available. No offer of 50 per cent of the costs had been received, said Mr McCabe. Cr Blackie said he had put his "neck on the line” earlier this year by telling club members that the toilets would be there by Christmas. The matter had been under control since the beginning of the year, he said.