Drivers to vote on service ban

Press, 23 April 1979, Page 1

Drivers to vote on service ban

Canterbury truck drivers will vote today on a recommendation of their union’s executive, that they ban servicing streets closed by local bodies to heavy traffic. The vote will be taken at their half-yearly stop-work meeting.

The secretary of the Canterbury Drivers’ Union (Mr P. G. Liggett) said last evening that the recommendation included a provision for an exemption in the case of emergency vehicles. If the ban was supported by the members, he said, it would include rubbish collections, concrete deliveries, furniture removals, and other services. The issue arose last year when the Waimairi County Council closed Stratford Street to heavy vehicles after a petition was submitted from nearly all residents of the street, which has 51 homes and about 100 residents. The street was a shortcut for trucks travelling between Idris Road and Fendalton Road. The council wants the trucks to use the Bradnor Street extension to Straven Road because it is designated as the primary road in the Master Transportation Plan for Christchurch, and Stratford Street is “quietly residential.” Mr Liggett said in Feb-

ruary that the union was not against the residents, but against the precedent that the council was setting by imposing the restriction.

However, the chairman of the council’s works committee (Cr I. G. Clark) said last evening that it was not a precedent; already there were heavytruck bypasses in many places. Cr Clark said that the residents had wanted the street made into a cul-de-sac but this had been refused by the Town and Country Planning Appeal Tribunal, which recommended the closing to heavy traffic. Cr Clark said that as far as he knew the union had not made submissions on the Master Transportation Plan or its review, nor had it made submissions to the council when the residents submitted their petition and formal notice of closing was given. “They do not take the logical course other citizens have to follow. Instead, they want to go off on their own bat. If the council is unable to close a road, then who is running the county?” he said.

The drivers will consider the recommendation along with other business at their stop-work meeting. Coach drivers will hold a separate stop-work meeting at 11 a.m.