Taking a seat on the fast-track road

The Hope Bypass might be on the Government’s fast-track list, but it’s not going to stop Roger Jones and his team from taking time out on their new seat on the edible walkway that could well end up a four-lane highway.

The macrocapa seat is the latest addition to the tree-planted walkway that makes up part of the Great Taste Trail on the edge of Richmond. Roger and his small team have been planting trees, including numerous fruit-producing species, and this year many will produce their first small crop.

It’s been a voluntary labour of love, planting and tending the trees to beautify the trail and the proposed bypass has always hovered in the distance. Now that it is on the fast-track list, it’s a big step closer, but the team aren’t too worried, especially now they have a seat to sit on and enjoy the result of their labours.

Rob Silcock is the retired builder who built the seat, which is made from macrocarpa that Roger sourced from a mate with a portable sawmill in Oamaru, then brought back to Nelson in the motorhome.

Sitting on the seat, pondering the possibility of a future highway, they had a pretty relaxed view.

“I said to Roger, what is the point of doing this if they’re putting in a motorway,” Rob says. “And he said, ‘not in our lifetime’. Even four years is a long time to enjoy this.

“The future is the future and we’ll worry about it then.”

Roger says the planting has been done for the community and everyone will enjoy it while they can. The idea for seating came from an elderly woman who asked them if they could add a seat so she could sit and enjoy the trail. She donated some money to buy materials for the project and Rob was called upon to use his skills to turn it into a seat for the community.