Proposed Catchment Area

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 36, 9 April 1948, Page 4

Proposed Catchment Area

- Borough To Ask County To Be- Consider Opinion While not subscribing to the suggestion that the catchment area covering this district should be the large one at present proposed and under consideration by the Local Government Commission, the Whakatane Borough Council indicated at its meeting last night that it was not prepared to back up the County Council in its proposal that the Whakatane Borough and County should have a catchment area of their own. Bodies interested in the catchment proposals are at present considering their case to put before the Commission, which sits here at the end of this month. When the matter was discussed by the Borough Council last night, the Mayor, Mr B. S. Barry, pointed out that he considered a better proposal than the scheme put forward by the Whakatane County Council would be one including the Boroughs and Counties of Whakatane and Opotiki. That idea, he said, had had Ministerial approval when it was suggested once before, and he thought it would have a fair chance of acceptance by the Commission. As against the proposal for a large area extending into the Tauranga district, it had in its favour the argument that the Opotiki and Whakatane areas had community of interest and community of problems to make such an association for such a purpose efficiently workable. After discussion, it was decided to place those views before the County Council with a view to persuading that body to re-consider its present opinion.