Control of Local Bodies

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 302, 17 September 1936, Page 13

Control of Local Bodies

Sir,—The Government is apparently striking concerted Action on the part of certain local authorities which are opposing the wishes of the Labour Government. We have the opposition of the Lower Hutt Borough Council to the new housing scheme, and we have the case of the Wellington City Council ignoring the wish of the Government to make the Brooklyn road safe for road traffic. Also, we have the case of the Hutt County Council refusing to meet the Upper Hutt Borough Council in 'making the road safe by the construction of a footpath. At present the Government has no control over any local body’s area, and under the new Local Bodies Act the Government* will need to insert mandatory powers to compel the local bodies to carry out the wishes of the Government. This applies most to the Transport Act and the safety of the roads in any part of New Zealand. . . v No doubt the local bodies will oppose the Government taking mandatory .powers, but it has to be done. Should any new or opposing political party get control of the individual local 'bodies, then these members can thwart the general Government’s policy and create obstructions in every possible manner. The Gdvitrnment will have to circumvent all these possibilities, and show the local bodies who is going to be boss. The local bodies have been allowed to assume too much authority, and the Government will have to curb this assumption of power for all time in no uncertain manner. In some cases it may be necessary for the Government to take over the whole responsibility as the New South Wales Government did in Sydney when it took over the whole of transport trams and buses in Sydney. -I L G ACSTIX Wellington, September 16.. ;