TRAFFIC CONTROL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22741, 29 May 1937, Page 16

TRAFFIC CONTROL

METEOPOLITAN PLAN LOCAL BODIES' SUPPORT CONDITIONS STIPULATED ATTITUDE OF ASSOCIATION General support for the proposals of the Minister of Transport, the Hon. R. Setnple, for the co-ordination of traffic control in the Auckland metropolitan area was recommended at a special meeting of the Suburban Local Bodies' Association last night. Mr. I. J. Goldstine, president of the association, presided over an attendance of about 25 delegates, whose approval, expressed in a resolution, was subject to a number of conditions. ' Before any final decisions are reached the question will be discussed by the local bodies interested. Another meetins of the association will be called, when a course of action will be approved. The Minister's scheme, which he outlined to local body representatives in Auckland recently, included a proposal that the City Council should become the only body in the Auckland area with the power to issue driving licences and that the council should undertake full responsibility for the control of traffic throughout the area. Conditions upon which approval was recommended were that local authorities concerned were adequately represented on the proposed traffic committee of the controlling authority; that the authority' should keep records of the control and supervision provided; that once the control was vested in the authority, no further levy should be made on suburban local authorities; that provision should be made for the employment of traffic officers displaced as a, result of the change, provided that they measured up to a sufficient standard; that all matters affecting street marking and the erection of traffic signs should be the responsibility of the authority; and that various alterations should be made in the proposed proportionate allocations of revenue. " It is not a question of a paltry fewpounds we may make from licences or other sources," Mr. Goldstine said, when various delegates discussed the aspect of revenue they would lose under the scheme. "It is to my mind a broader question than that. We should, however, ensure adequate control and protect the position so that we will not be called upon in future to pay a levy."