Separate Peninsula authority urged

Press, 8 March 1989, Page 3

Separate Peninsula authority urged

By

KAY FORRESTER

Three Port Hills councils urged the Local Government Commission to resurrect a separate Banks Peninsula authority at a commission meeting in Christchurch yesterday.

Heathcote County backed the bid for a separate Peninsula authority, even suggesting it could include both sides of the Port Hills, Ferrymead, Sumner and Redcliffs. Lyttelton Borough and Mount Herbert County hedged their bets, endorsing three options for reforms, all of which would leave them out of the new Christchurch City. The two councils told Commissioners Heather Little and Doug Pearson their preferred option was a merger of Lyttelton Borough and Mount Herbert County in a single harbour basin authority. They formally requested the commission to consider that scheme, already on the books before new reform law was passed. A Lyttelton councillor, Mahony May, said the council had not got a reply from the commission on that scheme. It wanted one. The councils’ second option took into account the likelihood of the commision’s disallowing the preferred alternative, said the councils’ clerk, Mr Gary Broker. That option was for a single Banks Peninsula unit incorporating Lyttelton, Mount Herbert and Wairewa and Akaroa counties. “We see it as a workable alternative,” Mr Broker said.

The Banks Peninsula authority would follow existing boundaries of the four merging councils, with a small adjustment along the shore of Lake Ellesmere to include Birdlings Flat in the Peninsula unit but the lake and its shoreline in the new Selwyn District. The Peninsula option represented a “significant measure” of agreement between Lyttelton, Mount Herbert and Akaroa, the main point of difference being the location of the headquarters. Wairewa County remained steadfast in its wish to join Selwyn District, Mr Broker said. Both Wairewa and Akaroa will be heard by the commissioners on Tuesday. The third option of the two harbour councils was for a Banks Peninsula unit without the whole of Wairewa. The Heathcote County Council submitted that the commission had erred in not creating a Peninsula council covering the whole of Banks Peninsula. There should be an authority covering at least Akaroa, Wairewa, Mount Herbert and Lyttelton and that part of Paparua County east of the mouth of the Halswell River, it said. The county put forward two proposals for an eight-ward new Christchurch City. One included Lyttelton; one did not.