Council slammed over George St 10kmh plan

The latest traffic flow proposal for Dunedin’s city centre has been labelled a unilateral, ad hoc push towards pedestrianisation, as a tranche of Dunedin city councillors call for better consultation.

The plan for George St and the central business district, dubbed ‘‘Safer CBD Streets — Covid-19 response’’ will go before today’s Dunedin City Council planning and environment committee.

However, the majority of councillors who responded to a request for comment by the Otago Daily Times yesterday said they did not have enough data to make an informed decision on the plan to allow pedestrians space to maintain physical distancing in the city centre.

The proposal calls for temporary wider footpaths, 10kmh speed limits, speed bumps, increased waits at traffic lights, and a journey along George St that council documents describe as potentially ‘‘unpleasant’’ enough to warrant rerouting buses.

Cr Andrew Whiley said public consultation was lacking and that was a ‘‘vital ingredient’’ in his initial support for the proposal.

He questioned how the plan could be produced by the city council when it could not produce a report on the last trial that disrupted traffic through the Octagon earlier this year.

‘‘We haven’t received any information about the Octagon [closure] success or failure ... but now we’re able to get this report done and presented to us in a matter of, what, 10 days?

‘‘We’re talking about people’s livelihoods here. We’re talking about people’s businesses. We’re talking jobs. We’re talking our economy.

‘‘I would think this is not the time for council to be making ad hoc motions and decisions when we’re coming out of lockdown.’’

Cr Sophie Barker said she, too, wanted to see the results from the pre-Covid-19 Octagon Experience before making a decision, as did Cr Carmen Houlahan, who also said she was not satisfied with the council’s promised consultation.

Cr Jules Radich went further and said he had ‘‘no faith’’ in the council’s consultation.

He conducted his own survey yesterday, finding universal opposition to the new proposal.

The proposal could create ‘‘wide-ranging instability’’ when the opposite was needed, Cr Lee Vandervis said.

Only Cr Steve Walker defended the proposed measures, saying he saw ‘‘great merit in many parts of the proposal’’.

George St retailer David Bridgman, of Bridgman Eyecare, said yesterday he had yet to be consulted on the proposal and was concerned ‘‘it’s going to have the opposite effect to what they want’’.

Former city councillor and Golden Centre Mall Acquisitions Dunedin owner Richard Thomson said ‘‘rather than just listening to retailers’ reactionary moaning’’ it could take a couple of years to get the right plan in place for customers, who should be prioritised.

AA Otago district council chairman Malcolm Budd said considering reducing the speed limit on George St to 10kmh, pushing towards pedestrianising it, and rerouting the public transport off George St was ‘‘a shock’’.

Otago Regional Council transport manager Garry Maloney did not answer whether he was in agreement with the suggested rerouting of buses from George St directly but said he was ‘‘given a heads-up last week’’ on the proposal and ‘‘rerouting of buses will be explored’’ if required.