Auckland Finding Is Good News For Christchurch Residents
News that a third-year University of Auckland law student, Sean O’Loughlin, has been successful in a case against Auckland Transport (AT) is good news for residents and should be ringing alarm bells for Christchurch City Council, according to a council candidate.
STUFF has reported that Mr O’Loughlin took the court case to establish that a decision by AT to install a raised pedestrian crossing and three speed humps in Bucklands Beach was "predetermined" and ignored the impact on drivers.
The road safety measures were installed at a cost of $667,000, with O’Loughlin, who lives in the area, saying the actions taken by AT were in “breach of their duty”, “procedurally improper” and “unlawful”.
Innes Council Candidate, Ali Jones, says she has been raising similar issues related to Christchurch City Council transport consultations and policy for several years.
“It is standard that when a roading project comes to a community board, for example the recent Ferry Road speed bumps and the changes to Moorhouse Avenue, they are framed as being “safety” and “safety improvements”,” she says. “In fact with Ferry Road in the last fortnight, when I raised the issue of emergency vehicles being delayed because of speed humps, the board was told by the council team that there are fewer call outs for emergency vehicles because of speed humps and road calming so it’s a compromise - I’m paraphrasing but what they were saying was it’s swings and roundabouts. There was no evidence presented for this specific area at all,” she says.
Jones says safety matters to everyone and that’s why we need to make sure the solution actually works for everyone, including emergency responders and vehicles.
“Wanting smarter solutions doesn’t mean wanting less safety. I am growing tired of some elected members saying when concerns are raised around pre-determination and lack of evidence, that we don’t care about lives. One elected member said last week when I questioned the need for so many speed humps, “Well I actually care about saving the lives of our children”, implying that I don’t. That’s feels like moral blackmail and it’s an awful thing to say. We all want fewer injuries and safer streets; the question is how best to achieve that.”
At a decision meeting earlier this year where a speed bump was agreed to on one side of the road by Jones’ community board colleagues, the CCC transport team hadn’t worked up all of the options before the board, so not all could be voted on.
“When this was questioned, the response from a council spokesperson was, “Fully developing alternative options also increased project costs…..for many projects, staff try to manage overall project costs by not fully developing alternative options if there is a low chance they would be selected.” This suggests to me a pre-determination,” says Jones, “and I think our council has to be very careful moving forward.”
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