Underground wiring

Press, 16 December 1988, Page 12

Underground wiring

Sir,—l live in Torrens Road, which is due for a boundary-to-boundary reconstruction in February, 1989. The overhead wiring in our street is approximately 80 years old and the road reconstruction would enable the M.E.D. to install underground wiring at this time with minimal cost and inconvenience to all concerned. The M.E.D. has notified ratepayers that this work can be done at a cost of around $2500 a ratepayer. I, as a ratepayer, feel this cost is totally unjust and wonder where our supply charge of approximately $5O a year goes. At a meeting last evening in the Torrens Road kindergarten hall this view was carried 100 per cent. Our Waimairi Council is right behind us and is prepared to do most of the excavation for the cable and all of the cosmetic finishing of the road. As ratepayers we are prepared, under duress, to pay approximately $2OO a ratepayer to the cost of the cabling. The M.E.D. in a recent radio news report stated that it is having to make some staff in the cabling area redundant as there was no work for them to do.

— Yours, etc., JOHN A. CRICHTON. December 7, 1988.

[The managing director of the M.E.D., Mr C. S. Laurie, replies: “I understand from media reports that representatives of the residents concerned and the Waimairi District Council wish to meet with the M.E.D. to discuss this matter. I would, be pleased to do this, however to date I have not been contacted by either party over this issue.”]