Rangataua sewerage scheme step closer

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 5, Issue 19, 6 October 1987, Page 1

Rangataua sewerage scheme step closer

The controversial Rangataua Sewerage Scheme took a step closer to becoming a reality last week. Waimarino County Councillor Gavin Jones put a motion to council at their meeting last Tuesday "for the council to make application to the Local Authorities Loans Board for sanction to raise a loan for the purpose of funding the Rangataua Sewerage Scheme". Cr Jones said it was necessary to go through this format before the scheme is formally presented to the people affected by the scheme. In explaining the procedure to the meeting, Cr Jones said that if the Loans Board grants permission to seek a loan the council advertises for the loan. "If that then attracts sufficient objections it is, at that stage, totally out of our hands," said Cr Jones. "If a poll is required it is organised by the Loans Board and we have no part

in it," he said. Councillor Jones said council was now at the stage where Rangataua people have full information and it was appropriate council approach the Loans Board. At last week's meeting Cr Jones made reference to the controversial public meeting held at the Rangataua Hall on 5 September. "The meeting we had was to explain the questionnaire and information that was put out," said Cr Jones. The questionnaire he referred to contained information on the Rangataua Sewerage Scheme, and contained the statement: "Council proposes to call a public meeting at the Rangataua Hall at 10.00am on Saturdiay the 5 th September". Councillor Jones said at last week's council meeting that some ratepayers purported not to have received questionnaires. "Yet (they) were able at the meeting to identify the fact they knew the

individual amounts. So that there seemed to be some misinformation," claimed Cr Jones. Before he seconded the loan application motion Councillor Griffiths passed comment on the opposition to the scheme. "I find the correspondence that's been going on in the local paper quite obnoxious, and quite deplorable by the Secretary of the Rangataua Ratepayers Association and I would invite the Rangataua residents to read the district scheme very carefully as regard the rural B zone," said Cr Griffiths. "It's time they took note of what the council is required to fulfill, and the service that the council might be providing for them," he said. County Chairman Con Heinold said he agreed with what had been said (at the council meeting). "We are only trying to provide a service to Rangataua when there is a 40% subsidy. If we don't try and do it we are failing in our duty to the Rangataua Ratepayers," he said.