Kaiapoi Council wish to fight amalgamation

Press, 5 February 1986, Page 7

Kaiapoi Council wish to fight amalgamation

The Kaiapoi Borough Council will oppose the proposed amalgamatior between Rangiore Borough and Distric councils.

The Town Clerk, Mi Gary Saunders, told the Kaiapoi Borough Council’s town planning committee on Monday that the objec tion must be lodged bj March 14.

The objection was the amalgamation clashed with the council’s view on local body reorganisation in the area; he said. In submissions to the Local Body Commission, the Kaiapoi Borough Council said Kaiapoi should be given control of the Pines Beach and Kalraki areas. Much of the land there was owned and leased out by the council and there was a strong affiliation between the settlements and Kaiapoi.

Pines Beach and Kairaki are within the boundaries of the Rangiora District Council and will be included in the amalgamation with Rangiora Borough.

Mr Saunders said a member of the commission would hold a joint meeting with the Kaiapoi Borough and Eyre and Oxford county councils before the closing date for objections. He understood the Oxford County Council was withholding its objection to the amalgamation until after the meeting. Community Centre Ownership of the Kaia-

poi Community Centre was questioned by the library and properties committee. The centre’s management committee has told the council it had gone into recess. A decision on the centre’s future has yet to be made. The chairman of the properties committee, Cr Peggy Wade, said she had been told the centre was owned by the management committee as a incorporated society. The committee had obtained a loan and raised money for the centre.

Mr Saunders said the valuation roll showed the council owned both the land and the buildings and the Kaiapoi Community Centre management committee was the occupier.

Crs Dick Wylie and Hec McAllister, who were on the council when the centre was formed from a theatre, remembered a slightly different story. They said the council guaranteed a $lO,OOO loan for the centre and made a grant each year to the management committee until the loan was paid off. Money was raised from the public as well. A meeting of the management committee will be called to decide the centre’s fate.

The council had asked for public comment but had only received four replies. The Mayor of Kaiapoi, Mr Howard Cumberland, said it was a poor

response and the public , were not interested in the centre.

Cr Wade said the management committee had “worked like dogs” for the centre but the community as a whole had been apathetic toward it. Car Wrecker

The owner of a car wrecking yard on Williams Street will be asked to make a conditional use application to use industrial land for part of the business.

Williams Auto Wreckers applied last year for permission to use residential land but this was refused. It had been argued that the disputed land could be used because of existing use rights.

The council had sought two legal opinions on the use of the land. Both opinions said that apart from the possibility of “overspill” from the site at 48 Williams Street, no existing use rights exist for car wrecking purposes at 56 Williams Street.

The chairman of the town planning committee, Cr Margaret Cleland, said the Council should give the owner the chance to apply through “the right channels” to use the land before it decided to take action against him.

The council might decide to permit the use, provided certain conditions were complied with, she said.