PATH TO BLAKETOWN

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 May 1931, Page 10

PATH TO BLAKETOWN

[TO THE EDTTOB.J

Sir, —Will you kindly grant me a little space that I may call the attention of the responsible authorities to the disgraceful state of the footpath leading to Blaketown. The section of the path that is particularly bad is that portion between Stratford and Blair’s Mill, and the, foqtbridge spanning the » lagoon. I have until recently, been at a loss to understand why this particular section of footway was allowed to remain in such a state of neglect, but upon making inquiries I was informed that the place under review was what may be termed a piece of no-man’s land. In short, as far as I am able to ascertain the position, it is something like this: The Borough Council say that the footpath is laid through Harbour Board property and that it is the Board’s duty to keep it in good order. The Harbour authorities reply that making footpaths , is not in their line of business, and that, if the Council wants a right of way, through the Board’s property for the convenience of its ratepayers, it is up to the Council to get busy and expend, a little of the money they collect in rates to provide the people with decent access to or from their homes. Now, sir, I do not know which of these two local authorities is responsible, but whichever it is, it is no credit to it, for apart altogether from long suffering local ratepayers —I have been one of them for many years now —i dread to think of what the many hundreds of visitors to our beaches think of our public men.,Surely sir, our councillors and members of the Harbour Board must be aware of the fact that what is. locally known as the tip-head is in reality Greymouth’s Esplanade—not so beautiful as some, perhaps,—but nevertheless it is used as such by many hundreds of our people, and no doubt would be used by many more if the approaches to it were kept in decent order. Trusting the residents of Blaketown, and townspeople generally, will take up this matter with our local bodies. — Yours, etc., —

RATEPAYER.