EXORBITANT HIRE RATE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 80, 29 May 1946, Page 5

EXORBITANT HIRE RATE

GALATEA BAILEY BRIDGE £6O PER MONTH DEMANDED The County Council suffered a heavy shock yesterday when the P.W.D. notified that Cabinet had decided that the hire rate for Bailey bridges now in use for local bodies had been fixed at £6O per month for the first year and £2OO for any term * thereafter. With regard to the Kopuriki bridge however a special allowance had been made for a standing sum of £6O per month. Speakers claimed that the sum fixed was ridiculous and further that the bridge would only be classed as Army equipment which would be allowed to rust away unless in use. The chairman observed that the council could not afford such payments in any case and that if the Government insisted upon them, that it be invited to take the bridge away. Cr Luxton emphasised the importance of the bridge to the growing settlement of Galatea where so many ex-servicemen had been rehabilitated. The removal of the bridge would have very serious repercussions in the Galatea district. The matter was left in the hands of the chairman and engineer to discuss with the Minister of Public Works the retention of the bridge or alternatively the reconstruction of a permanent new structure under suitable Government subsidy.