EAST COAST HIGHWAY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 41, 19 January 1945, Page 5

EAST COAST HIGHWAY

QUESTION OF ROUTE

BOROUGH COUNCIL DISCUSSION

Announcing the fact that the Main Highways Board would Be visiting Whakatane on February 7, His Worship the Mayor at the meeting of the Whakatane Borough Council last Monday evening said' he considered the opportunity a good one for bringing up the subject of the course to be taken by the East Coast main highway. Cr Warren asked if ; the visit was in any way connected Avith the controversy regarding the route to be taken. The Mayor replied that he was not sure. Cr Warren: As president of the Chamber of Commerce i I would like to tell the Council that we have received a letter from the Minister of Public Works, saying that no meeting lias been held between the P.W.D. and the County authority with regard to the. course of the East Coast highway. It would appear that there is something incorrect in connection with the statement in the Opotiki press- that the route had been fixed. I consider the visit of the Highways Board the opportunity for us to get down to something definite. I would like to see the matter settled for all time;, and put on paper so that, there would be no mistake about it in future. Cr Canning: Five years ago a petition bearing eight hundred names was presented to the Hon. R. Semple urging that the highway be brought through Whakatane. We want to get it as near the town as possible and by the shortest route to Opotiki. The Waimana. Gorge is a most difficult route and there are continual slips from the high banks. Cr Warren: I consider the people who live in the town the most competent to know what they want. I sincerely hope that we will be able to make representations. Cr Canning: Why not work to have it brought straight through the town? Cr Creeke: The. wishes of the people may be all right but. the opinion of engineers is what the Government is really going to l'sten to. If we want to hold the matter up" till doomsday we are going the right way about it.. If Ave want to get things done it will pay us to get behind the opinion of one of the engineers who has been over the whole route. The Mayor: The main point with us is whether the main highway shall go via Wainui or Waimana. Cr Shapley: It seems to me that it is the old old story. We will never get. unanimity of opinion on this point. Even if we took a vote of those present in the room. In the past we have fallen down on the j,ob through differences of opinion. All we, want is to have the main road as close as possible to Whakatane. We have been side-tracked in. the past by the railway and we are not going to be side-tracked with the main highway. Cr Canning: Whilst we are on this subject there is the question of the Borough bridge which is all but falling to pieces. They are. painting it to keep it together. % The Town Clerk gave it as his opinion that the meeting referred to in the Opotiki press was probably the Highways Council meeting which merely recommended to the Main Highways Board. Cr Canning: Yes, and the Opotiki paper made the most of it. Cr Warren: I don't think it is as easy as that. The board probably acts upon these recommendations and it is up to us to see that we have a voice in the final say.

Cr Canning: I am very glad to see that we are at last getting a live Chamber of Commerce. In the past the business men of this) town have been yery slow on the uptake. You could call meeting after meeting: and get nobody there. That was when the railway was. coming through Taneatua had the pull, and we lost iit. If we don't wake up we will lose the highway too. The Mayor then moved that the Council meet the Board and ask the Chamber to be there in support also.