John MacDonald: What is Christchurch City Council thinking with these so-called 'upgrades'?

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

It's enough to make you want to put your head in your hands.

When the whole country is trying to work out how we’re going to pay for building all those new roads and everything else that needs rebuilding up north because of Cyclone Gabrielle, there’s news today that more than $1 million is going to be spent on a stretch of Gloucester Street, in central Christchurch.

And what’s more, once the so-called “upgrade” happens, it’s going to be trialled for 10 weeks and if the council decides 'nah, it doesn’t really work', all the work will be undone and it’ll go back to what it’s like at the moment.

The stretch of Gloucester Street I’m talking about is right in the centre of town - where the Turanga central library and the Isaac Theatre Royal are. And where the new Court Theatre is going to be built.

The bit, if you’re travelling west, that takes you to the intersection where you have to turn left or right, because if you went straight ahead you’d come to the big concrete wall at the new Te Pae Convention Centre.

The idea is to make the street more “people friendly” by reducing the speed limit from 30 kph to 10 kph, making it one-way - which will mean you’ll only be drive westward towards the convention centre - and there’ll be planter boxes and all the other usual stuff that makes streets narrower and slows down traffic.

Yhe budget is $1.4M million. With 90 percent of the money coming from Waka Kotahi’s “Streets for People” programme and the rest paid for by the Christchurch City Council.

Apparently, the $1.4M is the total budget for making the changes and undoing them if they decide after 10 weeks that it’s not really worth it. Either way, can you think of anything more wasteful?

Blowing nearly $1.5M on, effectively, a piece of public consultation. Because, as part of deciding whether to stick with the changes once they’re made, the council will be running an online survey to find out what we all think of them.

The city council is saying that the changes are being trialled on Gloucester Street because that’s the performing arts precinct.

So I imagine they’re thinking that with all the people trotting along to the Isaac Theatre Royal and the Convention Centre and the Court Theatre (once it’s built), a narrower, slower street would make it more people-friendly and safer.

The fly-in-the-ointment there, though, is that piece of land on the Gloucester/Colombo corner - where you’ve got Turanga and the Convention Centre - where the Court Theatre is going to be one day.

If you’ve been in Christchurch for any period of time over the past 12 years, you’ll know that once they start building the Court Theatre, that stretch of Gloucester will be anything but a “street for the people”. There’ll be trucks going in and out - the whole she-bang.

But that may not be an issue because the money will be spent on all these changes and, after a 10-week trial, the council will do its consultation and it may actually decide that the whole thing’s a daft idea and all the work and the changes will be undone and it’ll go back to how it is now.

And that will be Christchurch making the best use of $1.4 million.

And if the changes stay, we will have yet another street in downtown Christchurch that is pretty much a no-go zone for vehicles - one-way, with a 10 kph speed limit.

So when does work start? It starts next week. I’m not quite sure how long it's going to take but once it’s finished, and it’s been in place for 10 weeks, you’ll be able to have your say.

But I think this shouldn’t be allowed to go any further. Sure, the city council is saying that it's getting most of the $1.4 million from the Government - 90 percent of it. But this money would have been approved long before Cyclone Gabrielle and I can’t believe no one at the city appears to have looked up from their spreadsheet and Gantt chart and said ‘do you think we should still be going ahead with this?’.

That doesn’t appear to have happened, and it is shameful on so many fronts.

It is shameful that Waka Kotahi and the council think it’s a good use of taxpayer and ratepayer money to fund what could turn out to be nothing more than an expensive trial and consultation exercise.

And it is shameful that, at a time when the country is facing huge rebuild costs thanks to Cyclone Gabrielle, the Christchurch City Council hasn’t made a symbolic gesture and said to the Government ‘thanks, but no thanks’ for the money.

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