EAST COAST HIGHWAY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 48, 13 February 1945, Page 5

EAST COAST HIGHWAY

HARBOUR BOARD'S MOVE

CONFERENCE TO BE CALLED

Discussing the question of the course of the East Coast highway? the Harbour Board at its meeting las't week decided! that as the outcome vitally concerned its a meeting of all interested bodies in the Borough together with the Main Highways representative should be called in the near future for the purpose of arriving at a common conclusion as to the popular choice of direction from the Whakatane viewpoint.

The chairman } Mr W. R. Room said that the subject had been figuring prominently of late in the press of both Whakatane and Opotiki and he thought that as. a local bo-dy directly concerned that the Harbour Board should convene a' meeting in order to see if it. Ave re not possible to get unanimity on the whole question of route. If this could be achieved they would g,et somewhere. If the highway was to enter Whakatane via the mudflats it would pay the Board to not only support it but to actually put money in to the project, as it Avas vitally interested. He agreed that the main decision lay with the engineers but at least the local authorities could get together and reach a common decision. He would like to see the. Borough Council Chamber of Commerce and Mr J. L. Burnett (member of the Highways Board Council) brought together for that purpose.

Mr G. Brabant suggested that the general public should be invited to attend also. He was personally against any proposal to bring the highway through Ohope. The resort would be better without being cluttered up with through traffic, and would not be welcomed by campers.

The chairman said he was not keen on inviting the general public. The bodies affected were to his mind the best criterion of what was want, ed. They would get much further that way than by throwing it open to public idebate. The secretary gave it as his opinion that usage was what really counted as far as a good roading service was concerned, w 7 hether it was called a main highway,, state highway or any other highway. On the motion of the chairman seconded by Mr Ruddick it was decided to convene a conference as outlined in the near future.