The Star: April 20, 2017

The Star Latest Christchurch news at www. .kiwi
Thursday April 20 2017 21
Viewpoint
Trail will be an asset
CANTABRIANS will soon be
able to enjoy a riverside trail
running along the banks of
the Avon River through the
residential red zone.
The 12km transitional Avon
Trail will open in stages from
spring and will allow Cantabrians
and city visitors to walk, run or
cycle from Barbadoes St in the
central city to Pages Rd in New
Brighton.
The whole trail will be completed
and open by early next year.
Construction of the first section
of Avon Trail will start this
month from Retreat Rd/Avonside
Dr through to the Gayhurst Rd
Bridge.
The trail will be prepared at
the same time as the upgrade of
the temporary stop banks. By
smoothing the top of the stop
banks and adding a fine gravel
surface, the trail will be suitable
for a wide range of uses.
The Avon-Otakoro Network is
leading the project, and community
volunteers will help prepare
some sections of the trail. Regenerate
Christchurch has been helping
co-ordinate the work, and
funding has been provided by the
Ministry of Social Development
to the Avon-Otakoro Network.
Gerry Brownlee
Now that the former red zone
has mostly been cleared and
grassed, we can see the potential
of the river corridor.
The Avon Trail is an opportunity
for the public to explore this
area, and I encourage everyone
to do so.
It is an exciting asset for Christchurch,
and an innovative way to
get Cantabrians moving from the
city to the sea.
The trail is great news for our
city, and will help to promote the
regeneration of New Brighton. It
will allow everyone easy access to
the lower Avon and surrounding
red zone.
The transitional trail will remain
in use for at least two years,
as the larger regeneration operation
unfolds around it. Further
opportunities for a permanent
connection from the city to the
sea will be explored later.
This is an important area of
regeneration, and will impact
Christchurch’s future. It is the
first step in creating a peoplefriendly,
green space in our city.
•Gerry Brownlee is
Minister supporting Greater
Christchurch Regeneration
•Megan Woods, p23
Last week The Star
reported the city council
was looking at setting up
an online hub that had
information for residents
and visitors about
Christchurch as part of the
Smart Cities programme.
Peter Parr, of Southbridge –
At last I’ve come to understand
that the city council believes,
and rightly so, that the public is
stupid, ignorant, unobservant
and gullible.
We’re to get new technologies
with an online hub where we can
get all the information we need
about Christchurch (The Star
April 13). It’s all in the wording,
‘info we need’ not what we may
actually want – like what the city
council is planning, actually doing
or spends our rates on.
The council wrote to me “red
arrow protections is required
when either pedestrians or cyclists
are using the crossing.” Sounds
straight forward but ‘are using’
is not true. In reality the aforementioned
phantom crossers get
an auto green at the expense of
real vehicles waiting to turn. No
wonder we have traffic problems
and frustrated drivers.
I asked the council if the new
Riccarton Rd/Ave light set-up
would be used as a template for
the rest of Christchurch. The
answer was no, that was true
because the city was/is already
being set-up with red-lighting
actual traffic so non-existent
cyclists can have an auto green
light.
The council man claimed a
‘max of 66 vehicles an hour’ turn
right, (east) off Deans to Riccarton
Ave but said they don’t
know how many bikes go north/
south. Interesting that another
newspaper quoted the city council
as claiming 1300 cyclists use
the Hagley Park route each week
day, maybe the new ‘online hub’
will know the real figure.
Will our ‘new hub’ have how
much the city council has spent
on cycle lanes over the last few
years and how much is budgeted
in the next several, will they be
toll-ways to recoup the cost?
Will the new hub have the
number of cars, adult cyclists,
electric vehicles use the likes of
Colombo St, Papanui Rd, Riccarton
Rd and St Asaph Sts?
So many questions but we’ll
have to wait on the answers.
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