NEW STREETS LOAN

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1410, 26 June 1923, Page 5

NEW STREETS LOAN

PROPOSALS TO BE FORMULATED. Important headway in relation to the proposed streets and footpaths construction loan was made by the Te Awamutu Borough Council last evening. Cr Downes raised the question by asking whether the Council intended to place the streets loan proposal before the public in the near future. The Mayor replied that he had hoped to see some tangible result from the recent conferences regarding heavy traffic on the roads. Tt was difficult to come forward with roading loans only to see. as the months went by. the roads themselves pounded to pieces by heavy traffic. Cr Downes thought that in any case the proposals should he formulated without delay, so as to have everything in readiness for the coming summer. Cr Spinley did not favour waiting for any conference regulation of the heavy traffic. The Council should go right ahead and frame its own bylaw and see to it that those placing heavy traffic on the roads paid something commensurate to the damage they did. There was traffic coming from Hamilton and other towns, using and seriously damaging our roads, and yet not paying anything toward their cost Cr McCarroll asked was (here any by-law enabling the Council to stop heavy traffic at this season. Only the other day there would have been a ten-ton vehicle running along the Kihikihi Road had it not been for prohibition of this traffic in the Waipa county. He thought, the Council should have its own by-law to control the traffic and protect the roads. Cr Downes proposed that the works committee prepare a schedule of proposed works to be provided for in the loan. Cr Montefiore urged that provision be made for all of the roads and to do them properly. Cr McGechie concurred, adding that experience proved the necessity for a properly-sealed surface. Two matters must, have consideration right from the inauguration of the scheme One was the service at the Council’s disposal. and the other was the allocation of the money to various streets. The Mayor said it was for the works committee to bring forward proposals, and the Council could then review them in detail. Cr Montefiore thought it was asking too much of the works committee to call for a comprehensive report on such an extensive undertaking as the one proposed. They had to get a thoroughly-designed proposal before the people could be asked to vote on it. He thought that competent engineering advice should he obtained. The foreman (Mr Archer) said he was a member of the New Zealand Society of Civil Engineers since its inception in this country. Cr Spinley asked what would happen if the loan was rejected. A consulting engineer would cost money, and it would mean that practically the whole of the money available for the roads this year would be eaten up in engineeering fees. Personally be considered the foreman quite capable of guiding the Council in this matter.

Cr Montefiore also considered the foreman quite capable, but. it was a matter of gaining public confidence. He suggested that the foreman bring down plans and specifications, land that (hese then be submitted to an outside engineer for review They wanted a complete plan and specification for every street

Finally it was decided that the foreman prepare plans for consideration by the Council at the earliest possible date.