Council seeks gondola decision review

Press, 19 July 1988, Page 1

Council seeks gondola decision review

KAY FORRESTER

The Christchurch City Council will lead a campaign to reverse the decision disallowing the use I of the Mount Cavendish Reserve for the Port Hills gondola. The Conservation Department decision to not allow the development on the reserve is at odds with the community’s wishes, some City councillors say. They accused last evening the Minister of Conservation, Ms Clark, and the department of causing a tremendous waste of time and money by the council and the gondola developer by deviating from an earlier indication that the Minister’s consent I for the use of the reserve could be expected after the Planning Tribunal’s decision. Cr John Burn said the Government was at odds with the community over this important regional facility. The Minister had been misadvised by the department which was concerned only about conservation and not the wider i good of the community, he said. A council deputation will ask the Minister to review the decision — made under delegated authority by the regional manager in Canterbury, Mr Kerry Mawhinney. Mr Mawhinney said last evening that he made the decision not to allow the use of the reserve for the gondola’s top station and restaurant under delegated authority. Whether the Minister might choose to reverse his decision was a matter for her, not him. Mr Mawhinney said he had taken account of conservation matters in his decision. Those were his terms of reference. He believed the reserve was in danger if the gondola project went ahead there. The reserve had botanical significance — a point disputed last evening by Cr Burn. The council will write to local members of Parliament expressing concern about the decision and will seek the support of other Canterbury authorities in its case to the Minister. Cr Charles Manning said the decision did not scuttle the gondola project. An alternative site was available and acceptable. That site, further down the hill, did not provide the panoramic view integral to the gondola concept, Cr Burn said. “The Minister ... has a wider responsibility and Christchurch has a right to expect her to exercise it in favour of the region — an area much damaged by current Government policies.”

Cr Burn said the Conservation Department had known of the project for 2 1 /, years and to come in at this late stage with a negative decision was appalling. Mr Mawhinney disputed that his department’s decision was late. Over the last two or three years the gondola promoter, Payeo Developments, Ltd, had had several contacts with the Lands and Survey Department and then the Conservation Department.

However, the lease for the use of Mount Cavendish, which the department had just declined, was recieved only in April this year.

Payeo had previously applied to lease tie reserve but withdrew that application after being declined the use of the neighbouring Lyttelton Scenic Reserve as a carpark by the Lands and Survey Department. The company was given a clear indication of how applications to use or lease scenic resenes would be viewed, Mr Mawhinney said. Such de-

velopments as the gondola could not be implemented when they were not compatible with the primary purpose under the Reserves Act of the preservation of the natural or scenic value of the reserve. Cr Clive Cotton disputed the department’s interpretation of the act. He said the department was not at the Planning Tribunal hearing. Mr Mawhinney said that was because the department was processing the lease application and wanted the planning pro-

cess of the tribunal to go ahead “unfettered” by the department’s concerns about the reserve. The North Canterbury Parks and Reserves Board, a quango serviced by the department, had tried to lodge an objection but had been argued against by counsel for Payeo. Mr Mawhinney said the council had misinterpreted its role in administering the reserve when it granted a lease. The right to approve leases for a building on a scenic r

reserve was the Minister’s, delegated to the regional office.

The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society and Federated Mountain Clubs have supported the department’s decision not to allow the gondola development.

“Mount Cavendish is very important for conservation,” said the director of Forest and Bird, Dr Gerry McSweeney.

“Botanists consider its silver tussock grassland one of the best stands remaining on the Port Hills,” he said. r