Lakewood Drive changes considered

Press, 9 July 1986, Page 9

Lakewood Drive changes considered

The Waimairi District Council will consider traffic restrictions on Lakewood Drive, Burwood after the death of a young motor-cyclist last weekend.

A group of councillors and council officers went to Burwood yesterday to talk to residents, and to try driving along Lakewood Drive themselves.

Cr Des King said that they realised there was something "drastically wrong” with the road. Cr King told the council’s finance and policy committee meeting last evening that residents were aghast at the latest fatality, and shocked that the council had not acted when they expressed concern in the past. Cr King said there was something wrong with the camber of the road. "I do not care what the experts and the engineers say — that bend is bad," he said. The committee voted to

ask for a report into the implications of making Lakewood Drive one-way at the Burwood Road end, allowing traffic out on to Burwood Road only. The report would go to next month’s meeting of the works and reserves committee. The District Chairman, Mrs Margaret Murray, suggested that residents of all nearby streets be invited to discuss the issue.

Changes will require a new by-law, and the committee was told that the public would have the chance to make submissions in due course. Amalgamation plea A candidate for the Christchurch City Council at the local body elections this year has made a plea for the Waimairi District Council to enter amalgamation discussions.

Mr Peter Dyhrberg, a Labour candidate for the

city’s East Ward, asked Waimariri’s finance and policy committee to reconsider the council’s refusal to talk with the City Council.

Mr Dyhrberg said that Waimairi’s chances of defeating the one-city proposal by the local Government Commission were poor, but Waimairi had a vitally important contribution to make.

“One thing is sure: if there is no input and influence from Waimariri, the proposal will not change markedly," he said.

Committee members then questioned Mr Dyhrberg, some saying he was starting his election campaign “a bit early.”

The committee’s Chairman Cr Martin Hobby, told Mr Dyhrberg that he was a little concerned that he (Mr Dyhrberg) had not given the committee material asked for before the meeting. He said that the public parti-

cipation allowed by the council was aimed at allowing Waimairi residents to air their concerns. In some respects, Mr Dyhrberg had “abused that system," he said. Public meeting Members of Parliament will have to start facing up to the amalgamation issue,' Cr Ralph Skellerup told the committee. Discussing plans for a public': meeting on amalgamation, to which Christchurch members of Parliament have been inviteed,; Cr Skellerup said that he suspected they saw it* as a “damaging issue.” “They are running very quickly 1 for cover,” he said. >

Response to the invitations to • the meeting, on July 15, i had been negative so far, the committee was told.';