BOROUGH COUNCIL.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 September 1921, Page 4

BOROUGH COUNCIL.

GENERAL PURPOSES COMMITTED.

The New Plymouth Borough Council met last night. Present: The Mayor (Mr. F. E. Wilson), Crs. J. Kibby, V. Griffiths, W. Rumball, T. N. Blackball. E. Dingle, R. L. Parkin, J. Brown, and R. A. J>arge. The general manager wrote advising that arrangements be made for taking the poll on the £’!o,<|ob waterworki loan as soon as possible. He pointet out that the loan had been arranged foi with the State Advances Office at th» end of June, and, in view of the finan eial stringency, it was not to be expected that the money would be kept available for any lengthy period.—The matter will be dealt with by the finance committee this week. IMPROVEMENTS WANTED. Ten residents of French Street and Wakefield Avenue wrote asking for improvement in the matter of footpaths and roads, and requested that a light be erected on the corner of French Street and the Avenue. A report was receivec froin the engineer (Mr. W. H. Cook) estimating that the- cost of repairinj the roads, doing up the footpaths, am. gravelling would be £ll6. Cr. Parkin said the road was in gooc order when it was taken over, and hi remarked that it should not have beei allowed to get into such a state of disrepair. The engineer said that the noxious weeds had been prevalent in the street for some time. Up till recently the road had not been used much. The petition was referred to Crs. Large and Brown to report on. “UNIMPROVED” VALUES. A request was received from Mr. Edgar Haydon that the council oonti .ue i Norman Street, Vogeltown, to its proi posed termination. This would require three chains of road to form and metal , and about the same length of footpath, i He stated that he was putting up a - residence at the end of the road to the value of £3500, and under these ciroumstances thought the request could be re« garded as a reasonable one. The engineer estimated the coat oi the work at £67. The Mayor*. The argument is no argument so long as unimproved rating rules. We get nothing out of it. In the course o-f further discussion the Mayor said the council could hardly grant the various requests of this kind till they knew what the position would be in regard to the various loans. ' It was decided to inform Mr. Haydon that the council cannot see its way clear to carry out the work. GRADING JAMES’ LANE. Messrs. H. Collier and Co. wrote protesting against work recently * done in .lames’ Lane, which had had the effect of raising the level of the roadway. They were afraid that not only would this damage the present building, but that it would also interfere with their plans for the erection of a new building before long. The engineer reported that in laying out, the gradients existing or likely entrances wore taken care of as much as possible, but it was impossible to fit grades to suit all doorways opening out as they often did on a roadway having had no particular grade adopted, but formed haphazardly. In reply to Cr. Kibby the engineer said that the highest filling in any one part was 10| inches. The council decided to obtain a lega; opinion as to their liability. GENERAL. Authority was given for the commencement of certain renovation work at the abattoirs cottage, as recently recommended by a sub-committee. Five applications were received from borough employees -for the cottages now being erected by the council for work men, and these were referred to the finance committee to allot by ballot. In response to a request made by the council recently, Mr. F. M. Grayling forwarded an estimate oi £3290 as the cost of raising the Mangamahoe dam. This was referred to the hydro-elactrk committee. Mr. W. 'Brodie wrote asking the council to effect improvements on the Belt Road, on the hill side of Devon Street, and the application wap deferred till next week.