NO TRANSPORT POLICY

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 91, 14 October 1920, Page 6

NO TRANSPORT POLICY

The Wellington-Upper Hutt road is no credit to the City and the Valley. Much traffic of all sorts wears it between Wellington and Petone, and there is statutory authority (still unexercised) to raise a loan to concrete this portion; but north of Petone the road is as bad or worse, particularly the portion to Trentham, which carries the traffic of the camp-hospital and the races. In some quarters the Defence Department's heavy motor lorries are accused of causing a great part of the damage. Beyond Trentham, again, the road is no credit. A portion of this Trentham-Upper- Hutt section of the road belongs half to the Hutt County Council and half to the Upper Hutt Town Board, which latter body resolved at its last : meeting to tar and metal all "pot-holes" in the middle of the road and to metal the sides, provided that the Hutt County Council is willing to pay half the cost. What is really wanted is a permanent road not merely to Petone but right through to Upper Hutt, and the local bodies of the Valley should co-operate with the City Council to have this work authorised. In the meanwhile, the Upper Hutt Town Board's patchwork scheme may possibly afford some alleviation, but it makes no claim to permanence, and it will not materialise if the Hutt County Council considers the proposal ineffective or is unwilling to find its share of the money. •Everybody agrees that " something should be done," but the necessary cooperation—in which should be included the Government—is lacking; and more thar> the interest or. the cost of a permanent road is being regularly lost in cost of wear and tear to roadway and to wheeled traffic, all of which falls back upon the public.