OBJECTION TO CLOSING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 71, 21 February 1939, Page 9

OBJECTION TO CLOSING.

• COOK STREET CROSSING. Formal objection to the closing of tlie Cook Street railway level crossing was lodged by Cr. G. Tremaine at the meeting of the Palmerston North City Council, last evening. He said the crossing had been closed by the Railway Department, and this was not in the interests of the public, as it had been a public street for a very long period. Serious consequences might have attended the delay caused to the (ire brigade through it having to go right round West Street il the recent grass fire in Church Street had been an outbreak in a house instead. The Mayor (Mr A. E. Mansion!) : But the (ire brigade got there. It would not have done so had it struck a train. It was pointed out that the council claimed that the Cook Street crossing was not a street, but a railway crossing over which the council had rights. Cr. Tremaine said he did not agree with that. It had been in use as a street for twenty years prior to 1901, and public money had been spent on it. Consequently, it could not be closed without a special resolution by the council. The Mayor said that the Railway Department had investigated the legal position and considered it had the right to close the street. It had accepted the legal liability for doing so. However, owing to the uneven nature of the formation there, and not to the barrier erected, he understood that it was not possible for perambulators to use the crossing, and it should be put in a condition by the department to premit of this, as provision was made for cyclists and pedestrians.