Bay cement works study initiated

Press, 21 August 1984, Page 1

Bay cement works study initiated

Nelson reporter A working party will be set up to study the social and economic impact of restructuring the cement industry in the Nelson region. The Nelson Bays United Council has accepted the offer of the Minister of Regional Development, Mr Burke, to set up the working party which would comprise central and regional Government members. Mr Burke told reporters after a council discussion in committee yesterday that he hoped the working party’s report would be available within two months, and that it would go before the Government at the same time as the Commerce Commission’s report on the restructuring. The council is concerned because the Golden Bay Cement Company’s works at Tarakohe, which employs 200, has been marked for closing by the end of the year. It has mounted a campaign to stop the closing of the works, on which the economy of Golden Bay is based.

The newly structured Nelson Bays Regional Development Council also met yesterday, then joined the United Council to meet Mr Mr Burke asked that the meeting be taken in committee since there were private matters affecting the cement companies which he wished to bring before the meeting, but which he felt should not be publicised. After the meeting, the chairman, Mr Courtney Lawry, told reporters that the meeting had accepted Mr Burke’s offer. In response to a suggestion by the Regional Development Council, it was also decided to ask the Counties’ Association, the Ministry of Works, and other parties to investigate and report on the possibilities of the wider use of cement in New Zealand. The chairman of the Development Council, Mr Brian Mills, asked the meeting if the viability of using concrete and not bitumen on roads could be investigated. Mr Burke said after the meeting that while the working party was researching the matter, a long-term set of proposals for the region should be developed. These should deal with any consequences of an adverse decision, and should examine the potential for wider use of cement in New Zealand and for export.

Asked about the feasibility of using cement on roads, Mr Burke said that he had once , brought this forward as a member of Parliament for the West Coast. At that, time, the costings could not compete with bitumen. “That situation might now have changed," he said.