Councillor Don Palmer Providing Local Leadership & Working for You

Council staff presented three new options to Jennie and I yesterday at our monthly Ward Briefing. All three options allowed for cars to travel 2 ways. Safety concerns surrounded two of the options however.

Staff have responded to the overwhelming concerns about the East Avenue intersection being restricted to one way for cars in order to save the trees. They put forward three options.

Two of the options had cars competing with bikes which all at the meeting felt was a safety risk we should not take. One of these options allowed parking along the rail corridor but no landscaping. The other allowed landscaping but prevented parking.

The third option allowed for the bike path (greenways) to extend all the way to East Avenue. The greenways of course is a State Government project and we find ourselves looking at an option for the sake of road safety that we would not have had to entertain had it not been for the Government’s greenways project.

Of course finding a solution to joint road use and this is one road that does present that way is something that fits the 30 year plan we developed out of the the Community of Possibilities Public Consultation last year.

Unfortunately this 3rd proposal reduces parking along Canterbury Terrace. I say unfortunately because parking in and around the Community Centre on the corner of Canterbury and East Avenue is another major concern identified by residents at our recent public meetings.

To address parking concerns we have asked staff to look at Parker Terrace to see if we can convert the current parallel parking in Parker Terrace to angled parking. Initial investigations suggest this is possible but a full review is needed to see if it is indeed feasible.

This option will allow a narrow verge between the cars and the bikes which can be planted with trees similar to those you have all had an opportunity to comment on.

The other obstacles with this option will see the gum trees (two maybe three by my reckoning) at risk of being removed and there may be an issue, having just walked the road myself, with off street parking for residents.

So progress is being made but we are far from able to present workable solutions for further comment from you. This means that nothing will happen for a while except the ash trees, which we all know are dead or dying, can be removed.

When we have something we will go back to you and seek your further feedback because the best option needs all of us to contribute to.