Fri, Jun 4, 2021 6:00 AM

Tāhunanui community rejects clearways

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Erin Bradnock - Local Democracy Reporter

Tāhunanui community members and business owners claim Waka Kotahi’s plans to reinstall clearways through the town is “dangerous” and “not acceptable”.

Waka Kotahi, formerly known as NZTA, recommended earlier this month that priority lanes be installed along Waimea Rd and Tāhunanui Dr to alleviate the city's long-term transport woes.

Clearways had briefly been installed along Tahunanui Dr in 2013 but were removed after community protest.

Tāhunanui Business Association chair Paul Matheson describes the plan to install priority lanes as “dangerous”.

“We’ve held a couple of public meetings with over 80 people each time. Most, if not all, are strongly opposed to the clearways. It’s not acceptable,” he says.

Paul believes the extra lanes and loss of car parking will negatively impact roadside businesses.

“They tried this a few years ago and it never worked. It was dangerous and people parked there regardless.”

After a protest in 2013, the community won the battle to have the clearway outside four businesses removed. The New Zealand Transport Agency and Nelson City Council agreed to a moratorium of four years on the use of the southbound clearway.

NZTA’s announcement to install clearways is the result of a long-awaited Nelson Future Access report that looked at three options that included priority lanes or clearways, widening Rocks Rd, or adding an 'inland route' to the city's transport network, otherwise known as the Southern Link.

Waka Kotahi says, after community consultation, the addition of priority lanes scored best overall against assessment criteria and that they had received "considerable" community support for the priority lanes.

Tāhunanui Community Hub coordinator, Mark French, is also against the proposal and says the community is divided by the road layout as it is.

“How could clearways become safe when they were taken away for being unsafe? Tāhunanui is a destination and with less parking it’s going to make things more difficult.”

Mark describes NZTA’s community consultation as poor.

Ray Weston, owner of The Hot Rock Gourmet Pizza Pasta Bar on Tāhunanui Dr agrees that Nelson City Council and NZTA have not consulted aptly with the community.

“I’ve heard nothing, and I find that absolutely remarkable,” he says.

“The community consists of small businesses trying to survive. If you think Tāhunanui is an icon, we’re destroying it.”

NZTA disputes claims they haven’t suitably engaged with the community.

“We’ve letter-box dropped and door knocked those businesses in Tāhunanui who would be most affected by the proposed reinstatement of the southbound lane at the intersection of Rocks Rd and Bisley Avenue,” says a NZTA spokesperson.

“We have also talked to many people from Tāhunanui who have either attended one of our drop-in events or made contact with us via our project email address, so we are confident the community is very engaged.”

Nelson MP Rachel Boyack says she has been engaging with Waka Kotahi and suggested the consultation period should be extended beyond June 13.

"I don't think its been long enough. I want to see a meeting held in the community. I would encourage them to listen to the feedback of businesses," says Rachel.

Rachel's personal preference for the future of Tāhunanui Dr is to have a short priority lane for busses like they have in Queenstown.

"That’s something I'll be feeding back to NZTA," she says.

While NZTA say they are receiving a lot of feedback from the Tāhunanui community, no further drop-ins are proposed.

In a joint statement obtained by the Nelson Weekly, Davina Janssen, Priti Brixton, Davence Yu and Lindy Heaphy at the Tāhunanui Pharmacy, and Dr Stephen Neas at the Tāhunanui Medical Centre, expressed their concerns for their patients' safety.

'How would ambulance and other emergency services be able to access these premises safely?’ it read.

“Tāhunanui Medical Centre has close to 8000 patients on its books, with five GPs seeing approximately 150 patients per day.

Tāhunanui Pharmacy is also experiencing unprecedented growth and removing parking from outside these crucial services in the Tāhunanui community threatens the safety of patients and creates a barrier to access healthcare.”

Tāhunanui School principal Barbara Bowen has raised her safety concerns to NZTA.

“We need something that caters for our children crossing the road, so we’re not all that happy about making Tāhunanui Dr busier.”

Barbara says if the clearway proposal does go ahead, they would likely be widening roads out onto the school grounds.

“If we have the full clearway, it will take out some of Tāhunanui School’s grounds.”

By Erin Bradnock and Kate Russell.

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