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The crossing is planned for Deans Avenue in Christchurch.
Photo: Google Maps / Screenshot
A pedestrian crossing proposed to take people to a busy Christchurch road and Hagley Park became “a joke” after two community councils voted for different plans at a joint meeting.
The result meant that a new crossing of $ 500,000 for Deans Avenue, near the Al Noor mosque, would have bright on a narrow southern track, but none on the single track towards north.
The decision was made at a joint meeting of the Waipuna Halswell-Hornby-Guton and Waipapa Papanui-Innes-Central Community Boards last Thursday.
Both were involved in decision making, as the Waipuna Council area Halswell-Hornby-Carton covers the west of Deans Ave, while the Central Community Council area of Waipapa Papanui-Innes covers the east side of the road.
Ali Jones, a member of the Central Community Council of Papanui-Innes-Innes, who was looking for a seat on the October elections, called the situation “Monty Python-Esque.”
She said it was “crazy” to have a single road piece with a decision made to one side and a different decision to the other.
“A little of a shim baico can be the way to describe it,” she said.
Jones voted against the crossing because he did not share other people’s security concerns, having been informed that there was an incident between a pedestrian and a vehicle in the last decade.
“That’s not great, of course, it’s terrible, but we have to look at things in degrees and reasonableness here,” she said.
“You need to see what problem is trying to solve, you need to spend more than $ 500,000 on something and just need to apply some common sense.
The chairman of the Halswell-Hornby-Hornby-Riccarton Community Council, Marie Pollisco, said there was discussion at the joint meeting on the need for speeds to be installed in association with the pedestrian refuge.
The board approved a pedestrian refuge without a speed of speed on the west side of Deans Ave and requested the team to revise the crossing and associated safety improvements after one year.
The planning and delivery manager of Christchurch City Council, Jacob Bradbury, confirmed that the crossing would go ahead.
“We are planning to complete the work in conjunction with planned maintenance work along Deans Avenue in April,” he said in a statement.
“Resolutions also included a provision for the north track to be reviewed by the Board after the operation that the crossing is in operation, with the budget being kept to install the North Hunchback until after this review.”
‘A little joke’
Riccarton’s residents’ association president, Bush-Kilmanock, Tony Simons, who was also running for the board, said no one disputed a safe crossing, but having two advice making different decisions on the same stretch of the road was “dumb”.
He said the board team advised that there should be brightness on both sides, or none.
Simons said the Waipapa Papanui-Innes Central Council voted to accept the full recommendation of a bipartisan contract from leaving the meeting.
Waipuna Halswell-Hornby-Carton Community Board later voted in another option that included the same buildings, but without the speed cuttings on the road side.
“It’s great that residents receive a safer crossing, but sometimes the local government is a joke,” he wrote on social media.
Security improvements for pedestrians
In 2022, the Waipuna Halswell-Hornby Riccarton and Waimāero Fendalton-Waimairi-Harewood Boards jointly approved several projects, including a pedestrian improvement package such as buildings and refuge islands.
The advice requested that the board would build a crossing of pedestrians that would connect the mosque and Hagley Park as a priority.
Employees recommended the installation of a crossing pedestrian crossing on central median island and constructions of restrictions to minimize the cross distance, with speed of speed in both approaches to reduce vehicles.
According to NZTA data, there were six accidents from five years between 2019 and 2023 in the area on Deans Avenue. No one was injured in four of the accidents and two people suffered minor injuries to others.
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