'Emotive words’ on gondola

Press, 19 February 1988, Page 7

'Emotive words’ on gondola

Approval of the Mount Cavendish gondola would be a “gross breach of trust” and a "betrayal” of those who endeavoured to preserve a scenic reserve on the Summit Road, said the founder of the Summit Road Society yesterday. Mr John Jameson, a grandson of the “father” of the Summit Road, Harry Ell, and a life member of the society, told the Planning Tribunal hearing of Payeo Developments, Ltd, Mount Cavendish gondola appeal that building on this site was wrong.

Asked by the tribunal’s chairman, Judge Treadwell, about his use of the word “betrayal,” Mr Jameson said he was “not prepared to reduce my words, sir.” Judge Treadwell had said the emotive words used in Mr Jameson’s evidence would “make it verP difficult for this judi-

cial tribunal.” Mr Jameson, a witness for the objectors, represented by Mr John Milligan, outlined the history of the Summit Road and his grandfather’s work in establishing it. He contended Harry Ell’s concept of the Summit Road was not for a gondola ever to be built.

The Mount Cavendish reserve should be regarded “as being held in trust for the people of Christchurch,” said Mr Jameson.

“In my view,” he said, “the establishment of a summit station (for the gondola) would be a gross breach of that trust, and I do not think it too strong’ to suggest that it would amount to a betrayal of ... Harry Ell and all of those who have since endeavoured to establish and maintain this ... in the Port Hills.”