Last year, the school’s board of trustees made a submission to the Waitaki District Council’s 2021-31 long-term plan, asking for plans for a cycle and walkway from the top of Oamaru’s Eden St to Ardgowan School to be brought forward.
Since then, there has been an outpouring of support from the school community, including a donation of 200 tonnes of gravel and offers of labour and machinery to get the project under way.
A website has been recently launched to gather more community support, as part of the board’s submission to the council’s annual plan this year.
Board of trustees presiding member Simon Berry said Ardgowan Rd was becoming increasingly busy and safety was "quite a concern".
The speed limit had been reduced to 60kmh, which was positive, but the roadside was still too dangerous for pupils to bike or walk along to school unsupervised, Mr Berry said.
He expected a cycle and walkway to be "well used" by school pupils and their families, as well as members of the wider community. It would also link mountain bikers to the Oamaru Reservoir tracks.
Principal Ryan Fraser said Ardgowan School had a roll of 113 pupils and about 19 caught a bus from the top of Eden St to the school, a 3km trip, because there was no path along Ardgowan Rd to walk or cycle along.
A lot of parents also chose to drive their children to school, and as a result, there were problems with congestion at the start and end of the school day.
Mr Fraser expected a lot of pupils would bike or walk to school if it was safe to do so.
At present, just one pupil regularly biked to school, but he was always accompanied by his mother due to safety concerns.
Robyn Nind, who lives in Ardgowan Rd and whose son goes to Ardgowan School, said a cycle and walkway would have several benefits, including encouraging exercise, reducing emissions and congestion and improving safety, which was a matter of urgency.
"I just don’t know how there hasn’t been a serious accident here," Mrs Nind said.
The council had applied for funding through the national land transport programme to help progress the project in the next three years, but was unsuccessful.
Mr Berry said the school community was willing to drive a fundraising campaign, once the council had developed plans approved by the community, to get the project happening sooner.
Roading manager Mike Harrison said the council was "fully behind" Ardgowan School’s request.
The project was in the third year (2023-24) of the long-term plan at present, and the council wanted to start planning as early as possible, but had to balance its resources, Mr Harrison said.
There was a vacancy in the roading team at present, and once it was filled, he expected more planning work to be done.
There needed to be consultation with all Ardgowan Rd residents, and a decision made on which side of the road it would run along.
Multiple "beneficial opportunities" had come from Ardgowan School’s efforts so far, but the council was restricted by rules around having volunteers working on public projects.
"We’re not saying no to them, we’re just saying we’re going to get things well planned, so we know what we’re doing and we’re all in agreement, and then we start chipping away at it as quickly as we can."
The Ardgowan Rd cycle and walkway was part of an overall network planned to enable residents to safely commute from the Oamaru town centre to the north end and out to Pukeuri as well as to Weston. It covered Ardgowan and Reservoir Rds, and Buckley’s Hill.
"This is one of several stages of that walking and cycling path connecting Weston and Oamaru. They’re all equally as important."
