Gondola project hearings may be combined

Press, 28 January 1986, Page 25

Gondola project hearings may be combined

The Canterbury United Council is trying to streamline planning hearings dealing with the Port Hills gondola project. Mr Malcolm Douglass, the council’s chief executive, said yesterday that the Lyttelton Borough Council and Heathcote County Council would be urged to hold a joint planning hearing for the project. He said only one set of hearings should be needed to deal with all

the planning procedures. Not only could this cut the time for the hearings from two years to one year, but it could avoid misunderstandings between the authorities and members of the public. Mr Douglass said the council was not pre-judg-ing the issue. A decision to support or oppose the gondola project had yet to be made, and the council was only trying to ensure that the planning procedures would be handled

effectively. Town planning responsibility for the area lies with the Heathcote and Lyttelton councils. The Christchurch City Council is involved as administrator of the reserve area of Mount Cavendish, and the United Council is involved as administrator of the Summit Road Protection Act. Mr Richmond Paynter, the managing director of Paynter Holdings, Ltd, one of the project’s two

promoters, said it made sense to hold a single hearing because so many local bodies were involved and the evidence would be the same for all of them. Meetings had been held with all the local bodies, and they had been quite positive about the idea of a single hearing, he said. Mr Paynter said a formal planning application would be made in February.