WHAT THE CITY COUNCIL HAS DONE TO IMPROVE STREETSAND FOOTPATHS

Wanganui Chronicle, 10 November 1950, Page 10

WHAT THE CITY COUNCIL HAS DONE TO IMPROVE STREETSAND FOOTPATHS

Addressing electors at Wanganui East, Cr. T. N. Dickson, chairman of the Works Committee of the Wanganui City Council, who, as a Citizens Association candidate is offering himself for re-electon, gave some outline of the work of the present council. “For what we have done or have failed to do I offer no excuses,” lie said. “Speaking for myself, I can only say that I have done my best, with the money and resouces available. I think Wanganui the finest city in New Zealand and so long as I feel that I can contribute to its welfare and at the same time maintain your confidence I will continue to serve. “I have had the priviledge and responsibility during the term of this council of being chairman of the Works Committee. This committee is responsible for the consideration of all details in connection with the Works Programme and with making recommendation to the council, which is then able to make decisions. UNDER FIRE AT TIMES “As it is a well established fact that no council has even been able to make a decision which pleases everyone all the time, it naturally follows that at all times the council is under fire from some direction, but if we refused to act for fear of offending someone then nothing would be done. “One of the first things this council did when it took office three years ago, was to request the engineer, Mr. Row, to table a report on street and footpath surfacing and early in the financial year of 1948 this report was considered in detail by the Works Committee. “Due to building control restrictions on the use of cement it was not possible to give much consideration to footpaths and it is only in recent months that these restrictions have been eased and the council should now give serious consideration to the recommendation in the report. SEALED FOOTPATHS

“It is interesting to note however that we have 57 miles of sealed footpaths including 14 miles of concrete paths. We should now lay 20 miles of kerbing and channelling, 15 miles of concrete footpaths and 10 mi>s of asphalt footpaths. It would be possible to do this with loan monies over a 21 year term at a total cost of something like £60,000 with annual loan charges of approximately £3OOO. “Streets, however, were a different problem and something we could tackle straight away as the materials required were not restricted by building control. We then had a total of 53 miles of sealed streets with a further 25 to 30 miles of sealing required before all reasonably well populated streets were completed.

“The estimated cost of this work was £79,000 with annual loan charges of approximately £7BOO over a period of 12 years. “The council decided that as it was doubtful whether there was sufficient labour and materials available to do all this work in a short period, it would do three miles per year for eight years out of revenue, and thus avoid the raising of a loan and save the cost of loan charges. “Having decided to seal three miles each year we then had to decide which streets to do first and the following priority was determined. First, all through routes; second, all fully built on streets; thirdly, all partly built on streets. This was a plan and it has been kept up to schedule. We have sealed nine miles of streets in the last three years. “The only deviation from this plan was caused by the delay in getting the Greyhound Bus Co. operating, so that we could get the trams out of the way as they were on some of our through routes which had No. 1 priority for sealing. We could not seal the tram routes until the tram tracks were removed, but now the trams have gone a contract has been let to remove the rails and sleepers and we can get on with the job of completing the sealing of these through routes. Before leaving this subject I would like to ask the many residents who have petitioned the council to seal their streets to be patient. We will get to you just as soon as possible although some will have to wait a while yet. But the job is planned and if returned I will do my best to see that it is completed. “The Town Bridge is another project started by this council and I am going to tell you that I have been working hard on this one. After abortive attempts by the council to persuade the previous Minister of Works to take some action in this matter I persuaded the council to agree to engage the services of a consulting engineer to prepare plans for a new bridge. This has been done and the present Minister of Works has promised to recommend to Cabinet that a grant be approved, we suggest a basis of 50-50. The Government Main Highways Board to accept responsibility for half the cost. No reply has yet been received, so this is another job I would like to help finish. Here again a loan will be required as the council will need to provide for up to £70.000 even if the Government bears half the cost.

“We have been pressing the Government for a decision on the site for the new railway station. We have seriously tackled the problem of sand drift at Castlecliff and have obtained a grant from the Government to help in this work. We are working steadily on a scheme for Town Planning and much has been done although this is a long job. We have let a contract for a new pipe line to safeguard the city water suppiv. Wo have been engaged on many other projects under other Council Committees but I will leave the chairman of those committees to tell you the result 1 -.”