Gondola given second chance

Press, 16 December 1988, Page 1

Gondola given second chance

By GLEN PERKINSON The Port Hills gondola has been given another life after the Minister of Conservation, Ms Clark, yesterday rejected her department’s July veto of the $6 million project. Since August she has been awaiting a. Crown Law Office opinion on the decision of the department’s Christchurch branch to refuse Payeo Developments Ltd rights to lease the Mount Cavendish hilltop for the gondola top station. That decision, delivered by the department’s regional manager, Mr Kerry Mawhinney, angered local authorities, the Canterbury United Council and Payeo Developments, the company behind the gondola. Yesterday, the prime mover behind the gondola, Mr Peter Yeoman, of Payeo, expressed relief at the Minister’s decision. Effectively that decision means the department’s July veto was rejected because a Government legal opinion said the department had no power to make its ruling. Now Ms Clark will reconsider the application to lease the Port Hill’s Mount Cavendish Scenic Reserve. In her statement she criticised the United Council, which on Wednesday attacked her for taking so long in bringing down her judgment oh the department’s veto. She criticised the council for making “ill-informed comment” that was “highly undesirable” in a complex matter like the gondola’s fate. Mr Yeoman predicted a decision on the site lease in “the

early new year.” However, Ms Clark’s office refused to give a time limit on her reconsideration of the matter. The gondola has been at the centre of a row amongst the developer, residents of the Heathcote Valley, enthusiasts of the Port Hills, nature lovers and the Summit Road Society, since it was proposed about three years ago. Since then the proposal has been through local authority planning hearings, a planning commissioner’s investigation, a Planning Tribunal hearing, and the Crown Law Office’s scrutiny. On hearing Ms Clark’s decision last evening, Mr John Milligan, the counsel for several objectors to the gondola, including the Summit Road Society, did not

rule out further court action. He indicated his argument, that the scenic reserve could not be leased for the gondola because reserves were for looking at and not from, still held. The Planning Tribunal gave the gondola the nod in July. Provisos that the Minister approved the site and residents of the valley were satisfied with conditions imposed on building and traffic restraints at the bottom station in the valley were included in its decision. Discussions between Payeo and the residents have been held and according to Mr Yeoman, only one resident remained unsatisfied. A draft agreement transferring Payeo-owned land adjacent to the reserve site to the United Council in return for building on the reserve has been drawn up. Mr Yeoman was confident of a positive decision from the Minister, which, apart from High Court or Court of Appeal challenges, would allow the gondola to go ahead. The department’s veto of the lease was based on the threat the gondola posed to the reserve which was “rich in diverse flora including more than 130 species of native plants.” The department believed the top station would destroy these plants and attract too many people to the reserve. It also said the land offered in return was “no recompense” for what would be lost if the gondola proceeded. If the Minister disallows the gondola on the reserve, Payeo can still build on the land it proposes to give to the reserve.