Leith Valley Road May Be Made State Highway

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26846, 10 August 1948, Page 4

Leith Valley Road May Be Made State Highway

The hope that the proposed northern access to the city through the Leith Valley would become a State highway, and that the Mount Cargill route would be retained, but as a main highway only, was expressed by the chairman of the Works Committee of the City Council, Cr Ireland, .at the council meeting last night. «

Cr Ireland said that the ceding to .the Waikouaiti County Council of an area of over 2000 acres of land by the alteration of the city boundary was a move in this direction.

Mount Cargill road to a secondary place, if not abandon it altogether. “ I would hate to see this route given up and the main highway brought through, the Leith Valley, from which there is no view of the city at all,” he said. '■!' /- Cr Jolly said that the Mount Cargill route afforded a grand view of the harbour and the city. If it were proposed that it should not be the main route, he hoped that , the council would not agree to the Leith Valley proposal. Cr Ireland replied that it was a question whether safety lay in beauty. The principle must be accepted that every major city should have an alternative route. Mount Cargill would not be allowed to become overgrown with grass. It would be a main highway, and it was hoped that Leith Valley would become a State highway.

The speaker added that the advantage of the Leith Valley route lay in j that it rose gradually to a peak, then descended in the. same manner whereas the top of the route over 1 Mount Cargill: was flatter, but it ran i above the fog line for a much greater ! distance. The Main Highways Board was impressed with the prospect of the Leith Valley route being developed as a northern highway to the city, and he thought that the Government was really interested in the proposal. Cr Ireland said that he had hoped • also that he would have been in a position to make an announcement m respect to the southern outlet from the < city, but unfortunately was unable to do so at this stage. ' The chairman of the Reserves Com- i mittee, Cr Jolly, asked Cr Ireland if 1 it was intended to make Leith Valley i the main route to Dunedin from the ; north, and to relegate the beautiful ’