Canterbury ‘disadvantaged’ in allocation

Press, 18 April 1986, Page 5

Canterbury ‘disadvantaged’ in allocation

By

LEE MATTHEWS,

transport reporter Canterbury had been disadvantaged in the Urban Transport Council carve-up of transport subsidies on Wednesday because of the way the money was allocated, according to the Canterbury United Council’s U.T.C. representative, Mr Oscar Alpers. Each region went to U.T.C. fund-allocating meetings with a "wish list,” or an estimate of what it thought its next year’s expenditure would be, he said. The United Council had been criticised in past years for having a “wish list” higher than necessary, and so had tightened its budget this year. This had back-fired, as the U.T.C. had been given

only enough money by the Government to fund 79 per cent of each region’s estimates, Mr Alpers said. This meant Canterbury’s request for $6 million was cut to $4.7 million. “Our tight budget put us at a disadvantage,” he said. "Dunedin still got more money than it did last year because its estimates were 34 per cent higher than last year, so that the cut did not affect it as much.” There was nothing Canterbury could do about its cut in funding, Mr Alpers said. "Something could happen if the Government felt inclined to do something for us, but I cannot see that either. Canterbury will just have to live with it this financial year,” he said.