Salisbury St bridge retained in schedule

Press, 24 May 1988, Page 7

Salisbury St bridge retained in schedule

By

KAY FORRESTER

Dogs, the Salisbury Street footbridge, and work in Randolph Street in — the Linwood library out.

These were the subjects that raised debate in the budget discussion by Christchurch City councillors last evening. An extra $57,000 from rates was voted for a dogneutering and spaying programme; the sometimes controversial footbridge was retained in the works schedule in spite of a spirited bid by Cr Carole Evans to have it abandoned; and $45,000 dropped from the budget for work on Randolph Street, Linwood, reinstated at Cr David Cox’s suggestion. Cr Clive Cotton was not so lucky in his attempt to have the book vote for the yet-to-be-built Linwood branch library kept in the budget. It had been cut by the budget sub-committee and the whole project effectively deferred again.

Several of his colleagues supported his bid to keep the library project alive for this year, but the vote was lost, nine to 10.

The budget sub-commit-tee’s allocation of an extra $lOO,OOO towards the book vote at a future date was endorsed by the council. The $603,000 for the library building was always coming from loan finance not rates. The council also added $25,000 towards future arts festivals to the budget.

With some adjustments to revised figures that meant an increase in rates of $57,000 on the budget brought to last evening’s meeting by the budget sub-committee.

The sub-committee trimmed more than $1 million off the draft budgets of the standing committeees in its budget meeting. The largest chunk of the $1,311,353 sliced from the budget was a 1.2 per cent across-the-board wages and salaries reduction. This is because the estimate for increases in the next award settlement are now not expected to be as high as the 7 per

cent allowed for. The salaries savings was $349,069. Savings in money needed from rates were made in the biggestspending works and planning department by transferring some works from rates funding to loan finance. The works and planning budget was trimmed $252,800. In the parks and recreation budget, work on the Barbadoes Street cemetery was transferred to the cash in lieu account saving $4500 from rates and the Salisbury Street footbridge, expected now to cost $llO,OOO, will also be met from cash in lieu.

The housing and property budget was reduced $23,174 by deferring a vehicle purchase of $21,000 and by the cut to salaries.

The policy and finance budget went down $437,000, largely because of a revised estimate of interest that could be expected from investments.

The sub-committee added items as well as cutting others. Included in the promotions vote now are $16,000 for the Employment Resource Centre, which sought a grant from the council last month, another $4OOO for the South Island Promotion Association, and $50,000 for the Christmas decoration programme. In the works budget, $250,000 was allocated for city mall improvements, with another $250,000 from the parking budget. With $150,000 provided for Cathedral Square, that provided $650,000 for work in the inner city.

The sub-committee also added $25,000 for grants to organisations, and released the allocation for the regular grants it has made to four city organisations to give a total of $75,000 for the grants committee to distribute.

A revised surplus from the sinking fund in the special rate account provided an extra $270,000 to offset rates.