The Star: February 15, 2018

12 Thursday February 15 2018
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
The Star
News
Council buys
flood-prone
properties
• By Bridget Rutherford
THE OWNERS of two properties
near the Heathcote River at risk of
frequent flooding have agreed to
sell to the city council.
Twelve purchase offers were
made and two were accepted, city
council land drainage manager
Keith Davison said. None had settled
yet, he said.
In November, city councillors
voted to buy up to 35 of the most
impacted properties, which was
expected to cost $16.5 million.
It was part of the $72 million
flood mitigation scheme to help
reduce the risk for more than 200
homes. It included building four
stormwater basins, dredging and
stabilising river banks.
The city council has already
spent $2.1 million buying six
properties in Flockton Basin. The
properties could not be protected
from flooding, even once the $51
million Dudley Creek Flood Remediation
scheme was completed.
The properties, on various
streets near Dudley Creek and
in the basin, were vulnerable to
frequent above-floor flooding.
Once the homes have been
demolished, the city council will
sell the empty land.
Speed cameras get Xmas break
• By Bridget Rutherford
NO ONE was caught speeding
by Canterbury traffic cameras
on Christmas Day – a significant
drop from the previous year.
Data released to The Star
under the Official Information
Act shows on December 25, the
speed cameras
deployed did
not catch any
vehicles breaking
the limit.
On the same
day in 2016, 50
speeding tickets
were issued
Al Stewart
after drivers
were caught by
cameras.
Forty-two of those were caught
speeding on Somerfield St,
Somerfield, with eight caught on
State Highway 1 at Leithfield.
The data does not include
speeding tickets issued by police
officers on specific roads because
the location detail of those tickets
varied too much.
However, on Boxing Day, 56
vehicles were caught speeding by
traffic cameras. Fifty-one were
on State Highway 73 near Darfield,
while five were on the same
highway at Sheffield.
On Boxing Day 2016, traffic
cameras caught 13 vehicles
speeding, all of which were on
State Highway 7 – six near Hanmer
Springs and seven at Glynn
Wye.
Canterbury Road Policing
manager Inspector Al Stewart
said speed was an “aggravating
factor” in any crash, along with
people not wearing seat belts.
“There were two speed cameras
deployed in Canterbury on
Christmas day 2017, so for them
not to detect any offences is
fantastic.”
In terms of the Boxing Day
statistics, Inspector Stewart said
police looked at the risks and
tasked staff to those areas.
“It may well be the deployment
of speed camera staff into areas
that were identified the year
before and, as such, led to a
higher detection rate.”
New Year’s Day saw 369
vehicles caught speeding. A
majority were on Northcote Rd
with 239.
Fifty-nine were caught on
Papanui’s Main North Rd, 35
on State Highway 80 at Pukaki,
and 21 on State Highway 7 at
Waipara.
Eight were caught on State
Highway 7 at Waikari, and five
on State Highway 1 at Saltwater
HIDDEN:
No one was
caught by
a speed
camera in
Canterbury
on Christmas
Day, but 56
were caught
on Boxing
Day.
Creek. On New Year’s Day, 2017,
no vehicles were caught speeding
by cameras. However, 4513
vehicles were caught by cameras
throughout January that year,
with 758 on Harewood Rd alone.
Inspector Stewart said on
Christmas, Boxing and New
Year’s days there were lower
volumes of traffic as families
went on holiday.
He said speed cameras moved
about every two hours based on
risk.
“It’s not rocket science – the
faster you go, the bigger the mess
when you make a mistake and
crash.”
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