Cliff Street residents are concerned that Cliff Street is being made one way before the results of the recent consultation exercise has been considered by Waikato District Council, the Council Infrastructure Committee and the Raglan Community Board.
The first Raglanites knew about the one-way system starting was when contractors erected signs advising of roadworks and one-way traffic on Cliff Street earlier this week. Checking this week’s yet to be published Chronicle they found a council advert advising of the change. It appears that a roadworks loophole law is being used to fast track the Cliff Street one-way project.
Cliff Street resident John Lawson said that this lack of communication was the opposite of what the council’s Service Delivery Manager Roger MacCulloch promised as recently as July. At that time Mr MacCulloch said, “Raglan requires a different level of engagement on projects such as this.”
The advert in this week’s Chronicle says WDC proposes a temporary one-way road from Sunday and refers to Schedule 10 Local Government Act 1974 -Conditions as to stopping of roads and the temporary prohibition of traffic on roads.
John Lawson said, “It appears that our submissions haven’t been considered by Infrastructure, or any other committee and that Schedule 10 only relates to road closures.” Shaw Meade said, “Only skimmed through, however, I’m unsure how Schedule 10 Local Government Act 1974 –
Conditions as to stopping of roads and the temporary prohibition of traffic on roads relates to changing a road to one-way?” Shaw added that this lack of consultation brought back memories of the bollard fiasco, “It was the same with the bollards down the whole street 10 years or so back, no consultation, came and put them in and then once everyone made it clear they were not wanted, they were all removed, I think that cost Waikato rate-payers about $40K due to lack of consultation…”
Raglan 23 asked Waikato District why this work was being done now given that it had been on the Community Board’s priority list for the last ten years and the recent consultation had not been considered by the Council.
The Council responded saying:
A temporary one way traffic management plan one way system will be starting from 16 December through to 30 April 2020, this is to ensure traffic and pedestrian safety, reduce congestion, and address issues with access to residents property through the peak summer months.
A permanent one-way system will only be confirmed following 30 April 2020, this will be undertaken by resolution process under the public spaces bylaw. The consultation part of this process is complete and is supported.
This temporary measure will be at a cost of $2500.
There was a targeted consultation process about the potential of turning Cliff St into a one-way street for directly affected properties and 37 submissions were received.
Twenty of these submissions were received from the targeted consultation area (residents on Wallis, James , Puriri and Cliff St). 15 were in full support of the one-way system, 3 opposed, 2 unsure
There were 17 further submissions that we received from people outside the targeted consultation area (not residents) – of these, 10 were opposed, 7 supported. Some of the “opposed” submissions referred to issues elsewhere and were unrelated to the matter at hand. These were received for information purposes only.
Senior Transportation Engineer, Waikato District Council, Gareth Bellamy