Cr Clark invited to show his worth

Press, 6 February 1986, Page 6

Cr Clark invited to show his worth

“If Cr Alex Clark feels he can run the Christchurch Transport Board better, we would welcome his contribution,” said Mr Patrick Neary, the board’s chairman, in response yesterday to criticisms of the board by Cr Clark. Cr Clark, Labour’s Mayoral candidate in this year’s local body elections, may well take up Mr Neary’s offer. He said yesterday that he might stand for the board at the October elections. Mr Neary extended an invitation to Cr Clark to meet the board and discuss ways of improving its work. Cr Clark yesterday declined the invitation by saying he might instead meet the board as a member after October. Earlier this week, Cr Clark called for the board to be scrapped in local government reform. He was criticising a suggestion by the board that it might have to cut services to offset a drop in revenue. Mr Neary said Cr Clark had taken out of context remarks that savings had

been made during the bus drivers’ strike last year. “The fact is that the savings made in not running the service for 15 days during the strike were very short-term ones and have already been absorbed by the latest wage round,” he said. The board’s public image had not been tarnished by the strike as Cr Clark had suggested, Mr Neary said. “We had strong support from the public endorsing the board’s stand in resisting the Tramway Union’s demand for a $32 a week wage increase over and above the State linkage in the award,” he said. A main factor in the strikes in Christchurch was a payment by the Auckland Regional Authority to its drivers of $l3 a week. Cr Clark’s suggestion that the board be part of a single, city authority could bring similar problems, Mr Neary said. No organisation could sustain losses for ever, he said. “A judicious mix of fare

and rate increase is a more equitable response to rising costs than the total reliance on rate increase which Cr Clark’s policy implies,” he said. “Indeed, it has been implied in Wellington circles that our fares are much too low.”