FLOODING FROM ROADS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22582, 10 March 1948, Page 6

FLOODING FROM ROADS

WAIROA AREA CONCERN DAMAGE TO PROPERTIES (S.R.) WAIROA, March 10. Exception was taken at yesterday’s meeting of the County Council to the action of the Highways Board in failing to prevent the flooding of nearby properties when establishing highways in nortions of the Wairoa county. The meeting decided to frame a remit on the complaint for consideration at the counties’ conference at Rotorua. Mr. R. C. Goldstone stated that the board was allowing water to flow over properties near where roads had been constructed or built up, doing very little to prevent such a nuisance. “If it is good enough for the board to allow water to flow over our properties then it is good enough for the authorities to see that the water is taken off,” he said.

Mr. J. O’Grady, supporting Mr. Goldstone, said in his area he had seen water running down from the hillside over which the road had been constructed on to property at the bottom, and became so serious that fenT posts had been washecT out, causing financial loss and much inconvenience to the owners.

The chairman, Mr. A. T. Carroll, said a remit on the lines suggested, if carried, would prove of great assistance to people who lived in close proximity to State highways. The department was making too much use of endeavouring to get water away where there was no natural watercourse.

Mr. T. M. Connell said that if the board was going to take over highways in the county and raise them in places, then the council must take steps on the ratepayers’ behalf to see that propetries were not flooded for they did not want the same trouble as experienced when the railway went through certain areas of the county.