North Canterbury News: August 05, 2021

NEWS
4 The North Canterbury News, August 5, 2021
MASTER BUILDER
2021055
Parking up and travelling by bus
By DAVID HILL
LocaltoNorth Canterbury.
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Waimakariri’s new park and ride bus
service has carried more than 30,000
passengers into Christchurch in its first
six months.
The 91 and 92 Waimakariri direct bus
services from Kaiapoi and Rangiora to
central Christchurch began operating in
January as ajoint initiative between the
Waimakariri District Council,
Environment Canterbury, Waka Kotahi
New Zealand Transport Agency and the
Christchurch City Council in abid to
reduce congestion in the city.
Waimakariri Mayor Dan Gordon has
been using the service to commute to
meetings in the city and has been
pleased with the support.
‘‘I’m akeen user myself and it’s
fantastic to be able to skip the traffic
when heading in and out of Christchurch
during peak times
‘‘This service is agreat asset to our
community and everyone who gets on
board helps reduce our carbon
emissions by taking an extra car off the
road.’’
Waimakariri District Council road
safety co­ordinator Kathy Graham says
the park and ride service has given
commuters more choice.
‘‘While not taking the car to work isn’t
possible for everyone, it’s great that
there is more choice for those that can
consider alternatives, even if it’s just
once or twice aweek.
‘‘We also know there’s people who are
cycling to the park and ride and using
the lock up bike cages before jumping on
the bus, or parking their vehicle and
then cycling the remainder of the
journey.’’
Both services have four morning trips
to town every weekday and five return
Express service ... The Rangiora 91 bus service picks up passengers on one of its morning
runs.
PHOTO: ENVIRONMENT CANTERBURY
trips in the afternoon, making use of the
T2 lanes on the Christchurch Northern
Corridor to ensure afast trip into town.
‘‘It’s really encouraging to see people
utilising the services. Thanks to all that
have supported these new services.
We’ll continue to promote them in the
coming months to encourage more
people to give public transport ago,’’
Metro spokesperson Thomas
McNaughton says.
Between 40 and 100 car parks are
available at each of the park and ride
facilities in Rangiora and Kaiapoi,
which are maintained by the
Waimakariri District Council.
Lighting, security cameras, and secure
bike storage cases are in place at each
facility and there is free Wi­Fi available
as part of the service.
The Rangiora service departs from
River Road, White Street and South Belt
facilities, while Kaiapoi users can get on
at the Charles Street and Wrights Road
sites.
The Wrights Road facility has recently
been upgraded, with abus turnaround
and pedestrian pick up point added
beside the existing car park.
The project partners will conduct a
review of the services after afull year
has passed, including timetables.
Kaikoura’slong term plan approved
By DAVID HILL
Will Doughty is relieved to get his first
Long Term Plan out of the way.
The Kaikoura District Council chief
executive stepped into his newrole in
February, and beganthe processof
developing the 2021/31 LongTerm Plan,
whichhas been adopted, after being
audited by Audit New Zealand.
‘‘Formecoming in and starting in
February it was afast learning curve in
picking it up. It’s beenagood process
and the councillors have acknowledged
the effort put in by thestaff.
‘‘Nowabout the deliveryand doing
what we say we are going to do.’’
Therewere 71 submissions received
whichraised273 individual points.
‘‘The majorityofsubmissions
supported the fivemain options we
consulted on across the different
categories, so we were able to adopt the
draft with our preferred options.’’
The biggestchange was in the roading,
where the councilwas unable to secure
funding from WakaKotahi NZ Transport
Agency.
Councillors voted to absorb the
funding shortfall through loan funding
and reduceoperational expenditure to
90 percent of what was originally
budgeted.
‘‘It is important that we get on and do
the work,otherwisewewillget ourselves
into moreofahole.’’
Aworking group will be established to
plan roadingand footpath renewal
priorities. Apart from roading and
footpaths, the council is not facing any
major capital expenditure overthe next
decade, due largely to the $38 million
earthquakerebuild,which was
completedlast yearfollowing the 2016
earthquake.
Withthe wastecontract renewed with
Innovative WasteKaikoura, planning
willbegin for anew transfer stationin
2023.
It willbeloan funded, withuser pays
feestohelp service the loan.
Kaikoura’s landfill is expectedto
reach capacity over the nextfew years,
so council staff willbegininvestigating
future options, with Kate Valley Landfill
in North Canterbury and Marlborough’s
Bluegums Landfill the most likely.
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