Council staff want cycleway delayed after road workers harassed and abused

Tuesday, 22 October 2024

The city council’s head of transport wants to delay a contentious cycleway due to staff being harassed and abused while working on other roading projects in the area.

Christchurch City Council’s head of transport Lynette Ellis has recommended the council delay construction of the Wheels to Wings cycleway down Harewood Rd for four years.

The main reasons were a lack of Government funding and staff welfare, she told a council briefing on Tuesday.

Ellis said staff working to install traffic lights at the Greers Rd/Langdons Rd intersection have had a “hard time” and there had been some 'quite nasty incidents“, even though they were working on a project the residents wanted.

“It’s not the right time to build (the cycleway).”

The Press asked the council after the briefing to provide more detail on the number of incidents and what happened. Ellis did not answer these questions, and instead responded by saying she was being mindful of the health and wellbeing of staff and contractors when making the comments.

“Given the amount of works being undertaken in the area, our staff and contractors have been subject to abuse and harassment from the public.”

The proposed 4.5km Wheels to Wings cycleway on Harewood Rd has faced strong backlash from local residents and businesses. Cycling advocates say a cycleway was desperately needed on Harewood Rd.

It has been through at least two rounds of consultation, attracting 1400 submissions - more than for any other cycleway in the city.

The cost to build it has skyrocketed from $19m when it was first proposed in 2019 to $28.5m.

It had been expected the Government would cover about half the cost, but NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi has now confirmed it would not put any money towards the project.

This led to the council rethinking the project and releasing seven potential options, ranging from completing the full cycleway as planned to putting it on hold indefinitely.

Ellis told councillors on Tuesday she recommended a plan to delay the cycleway for four years and go ahead with putting signals at the Breens/Gardiners/Harewood intersection and link up the Northern Line and Nor’West Arc cycle routes. This would cost $5m.

The council has $18.5m remaining on budget to complete the cycleway work.

Ellis warned that delaying the project would likely lead to the cost of the project increasing even further.

Councillors at the briefing asked Ellis if the council could build as much of the cycleway as it could within the existing budget, and finish it off when more money was available. That was one of the options on the table.

Cr Tyla Harrison-Hunt asked Ellis if councillors could have a site visit so they could look at the area and the issues surrounding the cycleway.

Cr Pauline Cotter replied: “On our bikes? We might not come back.”

A decision on the future of the cycleway would be made by the full council before the end of year.

At the same briefing, staff said the proposed rates increase for the 2025/26 financial year was forecast to be 9.76%, up from the 8.48% signalled in the 10-year budget, the Long Term Plan.

Council chief financial officer Bede Carran said 9.76% was the starting point and the council would be doing its best to drive the figure down.

“Staff have been proposing tweaks to our capital spending, keeping it achievable so that rates stay as low as possible.”

At the moment, the proposed capital spend for 2025/26 is $737.2m – $4.9m lower than what was budgeted.