Earthworks at Rakaia stopped

Press, 13 November 1985, Page 2

Earthworks at Rakaia stopped

Earthworks on the south bank of the Rakaia River, to help protect the Rakaia huts from floods, have stopped in the meantime. The Rakaia Hut Owners’ Association (on the south side) has given an undertaking to this effect to the North Canterbury Catchment Board. On October 25 the hut owners began the earthworks on Crown land, which prompted the board to consider taking legal action.

An unauthorised cut had been dug by the owners without an appropriate water right from the board and possibly without" the permission of the Commissioner of Crown Lands, said the board’s chief executive, Mr E. R. Wood, re-

cently. “Now the hut owners have given us an undertaking that they will not continue with the work at least until they decide to continue their appeal against a special tribunal decision or make a fresh application for a water right,” he said yesterday. The association originally wanted to build a ringbank, a relief discharge channel, and associated works as flood protection for the area. This was rejected by the board’s special tribunal, but Mr Wood said that the unauthorised earthworks might not have to be rectified if a fresh, successful application for a water right encompassed this work.