Costlier safety fence an option

The Dunedin City Council is considering a more elaborate safety fence at Lawyers Head, costing double the original budget.

If granted resource consent, the fence would be cantilevered off the cliff-face and could cost about $240,000, council community life general manager Graeme Hall confirmed yesterday.

The aim was to enhance safety while minimising disruption to views, including from the Chisholm Park Golf Club, he told the Otago Daily Times.

"We are aware, as everyone would be, that's a concern.

It's a concern to the golf club and it's a concern to other people," he said.

In September, the council reopened John Wilson Ocean Dr on weekdays during daylight hours, and budgeted $120,000 for a 2.8m-high fence running 281m along cliffs at Lawyers Head.

That prompted objections from people who feared the fence would block coastal views, especially from the golf course.

The road was closed again on October 6, at Mayor Peter Chin's instruction, following a death on September 24.

At a council meeting yesterday, Mr Chin obtained retrospective consent for his decision to close the road, and councillors voted to keep it closed until they were satisfied alternative preventive measures could be put in place.

Yesterday's deliberations were to be in private, but were moved into the meeting's open section after Cr Richard Walls argued there was a public interest.

Cr Dave Cull agreed more information needed to be made public to clarify "misunderstandings" about the council's intentions.

Letters from Dunedin and Clutha area commander Inspector Dave Campbell and Dunedin psychiatrist Dr Keren Skegg to Mr Chin, urging him to close the road again following the latest death, were tabled.

Insp Campbell said there were 13 deaths in the area in the decade to August 2006, when John Wilson Ocean Dr was closed for construction of the city's outfall pipe, as well as about 20 other incidents annually.

Following the road's closure, there were no deaths - and no "displacement" to other locations - for two years, until two deaths before and immediately after the reopening of the road, he said.

"There were four deaths in the year prior to the closure and I fear with all the recent publicity there is a real risk a similar number of people could lose their lives in the next 12 months," he said.

Dr Skegg said in her letter suicidal people often suffered from a psychiatric illness and their tendencies were "often rather brief".

Making it difficult to access a particular suicide method immediately could save lives, buying time for the person to seek help or for the crisis to settle, she said.

"Research shows that most people do not readily switch to a different method if their chosen method becomes difficult," she said.