Hilltop abattoir plan approved

Press, 11 March 1985, Page 6

Hilltop abattoir plan approved

A plan to build an abattoir at Hilltop, near the main highway at Akaroa, has been approved by the Wairewa County Council. I The approval follows up a public hearing on February 18 of the application, by Banks Peninsula Meat, Ltd. The company is a co-opera-tive of 100 shareholders, most of them farmers in eastern Banks Peninsula. The new abattoir is planned to replace a “primitive” plant at Takamatua Bay. Cr W. S. Hall declared an interest during council discussion on the abattoir, and did not vote on the motion | to approve it. The council granted the approval subject to several conditions. Among these are that the plant comply with the Clean Air Act and not create any offensive smells or emissions; that landscaping and planting of the site confirm with an earlier landscape plan; and that access, water supply, and effluent disposal be provided by the company. The council has also required that loading and unloading be done off the road reserve, and that the building and any sign erected blend with the surrounding rural landscape. Treatment and disposal of effluent have to meet an earlier design specification that the treated and diluted effluent be spread over 3ha of land for two hours daily. The North Canterbury Catchment Board had said that it doubted whether the land could continuously absorb this much effluent, and

wanted the company to provide a 600 ■ cubic metre effluent storage pond. Although councillors also were concerned about this, they felt the storage pond requirement should be dealt with in the water-right application, to be heard later. The council’s’written decision said that the abattoir would allow improved livestock processing and therefore encourage local farmers. “It is considered that the local community will benefit from improved facilities, and (the council) accepts that there is an urgent need to close the present noncomplying premises at Takamatua.” Street lights Six street lights will be erected at Cooptown, near Little River. The council agreed to allocate funds for the lights in its 1985-86 budget. Cr David Cadman said that lights should be spaced evenly through the area. Some street lights in Little River should be removed to help offset the cost of the new lights, as there was “no rhyme or reason” to the placement of the Little River lights, he said. Rents Rents on five houses owned by the council will be increased, from an average of JI 8 a week to an average $28.40 a week. The County Chairman, Mr W. J. Thompson, said the increases followed on the recent removal of the rent

freeze. Cr W. R. Waller said the extra money should be put into improving the houses. United Council The council refused to contribute to three voluntary items in the draft 198586 Canterbury United Council budget. The council will not give the $47 it has been asked to contribute to the Mount Vernon appeal, nor will it contribute to the Canterbury Resouruce Centre or the Canterbury Promotion Council. Councillors had complained at an earlier meeting about the methods the United Council had used to try to obtain money from councils for the Mount Vernon appeal. Some councillors had also said the Mount Vernon block purchase had little relevance to Wairewa residents. Cr Cadman said that councillors had been misled into believing that Wairewa had a legal obligation to contribute to the appeal, when in fact it did not. He said the council had agreed to support the resource centre in its first year. It was now in its third year, and should be selfsupporting. The council reiterated an earlier decision not to support the Promotion Council. General approval was given to the United Council’s main draft budget, although councillors will examine it in detail later and make comments.