DIRECTION SIGNS IN BOROUGH

Taupo Times, Volume IV, Issue 172, 13 May 1955, Page 5

DIRECTION SIGNS IN BOROUGH

Statement By Mr Pothan In a letter to the Editor of the Taupo Times, Mr B. F. Pothan refers to the report appearing in the Times of April 29 under the above heading, which dealt with discussion, at a Borough Council meeting, of a direction sign on the Spa Road near the top of Kaimanawa Street directing to the Solway Flats. The sign was said to have been erected without the CounciTs permission. Mr Pothan's letter after referring to the report, continues as follows: "As I appear to be the only person to whose signs the Council has as yet made any objection, I would like sufficient space in your paper to make my position clear. My first point is that the sign on the Spa Road was only erected after I had obtained permission to do so. "Following my first application by letter to the Council for permission to erect signs I received permission to have signs placed on the main notice board at the northern entrance to the town, and also on a board at the Lake Front intersection of Kaimanawa Street. "I met the Town Clerk on the ground in connection with the latter sign, and then received permission from him to erect directional signs, one at the Kaimanawa Street junction with Roberts Street, one at the Roberts Street end of Fletcher Street, and one at the Heuheu Street end of Fletcher Street. "I erected these three directional signs. Later the same day the Town Clerk called on me and asked me to take these three signs down, and to submit a written application for permission to erect them. I took them down and sent in the application, and later received permission to erect one only, namely on the Kaimanawa Street junction with Roberts Street. This I erected. "Later, when the main sign at the foot of Kaimanawa Street was actually erected, I obtained permission from the Town Clerk to place an arrow directional sign below the Solway Flats sign on the notice board. and erected this latter sign. Within two or three days an officer of the Council rang me from the Council Office and asked me to take this arrow sign down. I refused to do so, in view of the permission granted to me. Later the permission given me to erect it was confirmed, subject to it being removable in the future if the space it occupied on the posts was required for another sign. "Later, I was informed by intending guests that they had had difficulty in finding my place, as the sign on the Lake Front was not visible at night from a car proceeding from the north in a southerly direction, owing to its being too far from the road, and they had eventually found themselves on the Spa Road. Mr J. W. Birnie, of the Spa, had also found difficulty in directing guests to my place. I then decided that a sign at the Spa Road end of Kaimanawa Street would obviously be a help. "I saw His Worship the Mayor, Mr Story, explained the position and obtained his permission to erect a directional sign there, to be subject to the Council's formal approval later. This is the sign to which your recent report in the Times refers. Apparently the Council did not wish to confirm the Mayor's action in granting me that pro-

visional permission. But even so there was no ground whatever for any statement that the sign was erected without permission. "The Times report of the Council's discussion has led readers to believe, as I know from remarks made to me, that I erected these notices without permission. As the forgoing makes clear, I was careful to obtain permission from the Council or its representatives before erecting them. "Why I should be singled out by the Council, when others have not been approached by the Council with regard to their signs, I do not know. "As an indication of the need for my signs, I may state that Wellington visitors were unable last Christmas season to find where Fletcher Street was, and enquired in vain at the Post Office and several business places. Later, when they saw the condition the surface of Fletcher Street was in, they jokingly suggested that the Council should r£name it "Snake Gully Alley", as then everbody would know where it was. "I would add that Fletcher Street has not had the grader on it for about seven months, and I suggest Councillors inspect it with a view to having some maintenance done on it. Should the grader have been on Roberts Street or Heuheu Street prior to their visit, however, I suggest they beware of the "ramp" left across the ends of Fletcher Street by the grader."