DO FOOTPATHS COST TOO MUCH?

Manawatu Times, Volume LII, Issue 6485, 17 December 1927, Page 10

DO FOOTPATHS COST TOO MUCH?

KOKOWHITU RATEPAYERS ON WARPATH. At tho meeting of tho Hokowhitu Ratepayers Association last night the chairman, Mr. A. W. Sutton, stated that he had seen the Mayor in respect of tho association's request for a footway in Pahiatua street. So far ho had got no reply, but perhaps it was fortunate that nothing had been done as ho understood the cost in other parts of tho town had been exceedingly great—as much as £l4 per chain —and what was more the council was charging tho property owners with half tho cost. The chairman added that something like £IO,OOO had been secured one way and other by tho Borough Council for tho relief of unemployment. It had been decided to spend tho money on footways but he would like to know where the £IO,OOO had been spent.

Others present considered a contractor could have done the work for a quarter to half the cost. It looked as if the council was making the property owners pay for the whole of tho work.

Mr. R. Edwards: You hear tho samo opinion expressed all over tho borough. The trouble is tho method of doing the work. Then again they had put footpaths down where they wore not wanted. Ho estimated that the work should not have cost more than £32 per chain. Tho whole procedure had been utterly ridiculous.

Tho following motion, moved by the chairman, was carried: “That this meeting- strongly protests against tho council debiting half the cost of footways to property owners and also the expensive method employed in carrying out this class of work. It is confident that the work could have been performed by contract at a far lower cost.”