Further delay on gondola

Press, 8 June 1989, Page 5

Further delay on gondola

B y

GLEN PERKINSON

The long-awaited Ministerial decision on the Port Hills gondola has been delaved aeain.

The Minister of Conservation, Mr Woollaston, was expected to make public yesterday his decision on whether or not the gondola could be built on Crown reserve land. His office said, however, that Mr Woollaston had not received important information from the Conservation Department. Mr Woollaston is laid up at home this week after slipping a disc in his back. The gondola decision is now expected next week. If Mr Woollaston decides the tourist attraction’s developer, Payeo Developments, Ltd, can

use Mount Cavendish, the project may still have to return to the courtroom. Opponents of the project may decide they can defeat the gondola on a point of law and file an appeal in the High Court. The row over the project has lasted about four years. If approved and not appealed the gondola development would be finished by spring, 1991. The Ministerial review of the proposal was called for after the department vetoed a Planning Tribunal approval for the project in July last year.

A Crown Law Office submission to the then Minister, Ms Clark, said the department had no power to rule on the tribunal decision. The Ministerial responsibility for the gondola changed hands this year when Ms Clark was promoted to the health portfolio and Mr Woollaston assumed control of conservation matters.

The prime mover behind the gondola, Mr Peter Yeoman, of Payeo, said he was still optimistic about the project, in spite of the delay.