Main street $2.6m revamp approved

Mayor Bryan Cadogan says Clutha district residents have two weeks to ''knock them over the head'' about it, but the council has sent a clear message to staff to proceed with a $2.6 million plan to create Elizabeth St as a ''town heart'' central to an upgrade to Balclutha's main street.

Mr Cadogan campaigned on an upgrade to the street when he was first elected as a councillor in the late 1990s.

He said the current state of Clyde St was embarrassing and seemed to date the town and district back to the 1950s.

The council rolled through debate during a Balclutha Streetscape Upgrade workshop that addressed submissions on proposals from a July and August 2013 consultation process as well as a June and July 2014 consultation process.

Mr Cadogan said yesterday the upgrade should be done and dusted by this time next year.

The latest round of consultation reflected council's acquisition of a vacant lot in Elizabeth St, which has allowed designers to propose a public space to be incorporated in the revamped street design.

A total of 96 submissions were received, 78 of them in favour of the project in some form.

But due to public comment on the loss of parking and the visibility of the town's retail outlets, changes have been made to the last design presented to the public.

The number of lost parking spaces has decreased from 48 to 28 in the town centre. And there some trees have been trimmed from the plan.

The modular design of the streetscape upgrade has allowed non-core issues to be diverted to the long-term plan.

The council unanimously agreed to put the bridge's decorative lighting into the long-term plan and to hold off on the proposed security cameras until such time as Clutha district has a policy on security cameras.

 -by Hamish Maclean

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