LOCAL BODIES' POWERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 236, 5 October 1928, Page 5

LOCAL BODIES' POWERS.

SUBDIVISION OF ILANDS.

RESTRICTIVE CLAUSE DELETED.

(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Thursday.

Several amendments were made by the Legislative Council to-day in the Municipal Corporations Amendment Bill. A lengthy clause imposing restrictions on the subdivision of land within boroughs, and requiring lands which it is proposed to subdivide to be surveyed and approved before being cut up was deleted. The Council also struck out the clause enabling a borough council to define portions of the borough as residential areas and prohibiting the establishment in such areas of trades or industries. The Leader of the Council, Sir F. D. Bell, said the Town Planning Act provided for separation of residential areas from industrial areas, and also for the payment of compensation. The Municial Corporations Association wished to have the same power without the right to pay compensation. He could not defend in the Council a thing which was so utterly indefensible. v In regard to the clause increasing the maximum width of streets to 100 feet an alteration was made providing that the right of compensation for the taking of land shall not accrue until substantia] building operations are put in hand, or unless the land affected is disposed of for less than the owner could reasonably have demanded or expected to receive if the street had not been widened. The clause relating to advances for installation of gas or electricity has been deleted, and in substitution for it it has been provided that if an advance for the purpose exceeds £30 it is not to be made a charge on the land, unless the owner or occupier has consented to the installation.