M.E.D. getting in while it can—Waimairi

Press, 5 February 1986, Page 9

M.E.D. getting in while it can—Waimairi

The Christchurch City Council is spending up large in its electricity department because it knows it will lose its electricity function, says the Waimairi District Chairman, Mrs Margaret Murray.

Mrs Murray said yesterday that the City Council was acting as if it knew it woulld no longer be an electricity supply authority after local government and electricity reorganisations.

The City Council was bumping prices and then transferring excess profits from the M.E.D. accounts,

she said. Of Canterbury’s power supply authorities, the City Council alone favours the retention of power supply by territorial authorities. Other bodies favour a single-purpose power authority, or a third tier of local government which would still give them control of their own supply. ~ Mrs Murray said the City Council was showing, by its actions, the reasons for a directly elected, separate power authority for the region. “Why they are doing this when reorganisation

is in the pipeline I don’t know.” To say that the transfer of funds from the M.E.D. was a way for Waimariri residents to contribute towards metropolitan facilities was an insult, Mrs Murray said. Reports done for local government reform submissions showed Waimairiri was paying its share, she said. “In the end... the electricity consumer is paying more for no reason. It is double talk and certainly not in the consumers’ interests.”