Battle of the bridge: What’s in a name?

Residents continue to be frustrated over the lack of action in naming a new footbridge over the Avon River.

The bridge in the red zone area near Briarmont St was opened earlier this month.

But Christchurch City Council continues to call it the Avondale Bridge – in spite of the long-time Avondale Bridge connecting Avondale and New Brighton Rds being only a few hundred metres along the river.

Star Media reported on residents’ concerns in November, but still there has been no action from the city council.

In a recent article on the city council’s Newsline website, the new footbridge was again called the Avondale Bridge.

Said Burwood East Residents Association secretary Gae Johns: “It just doesn’t make sense, how ridiculous having a brand new bridge and naming it the same as one that already exists 200m down the road.”

Johns said the bridge should have been given a name before it officially opened or even been opened to the public, and then had an official opening with a name at a later date.

City council head of parks Andrew Rutledge said the “Avondale Bridge” could possibly receive another name in the future, once a co-governance model is in place.

“An official naming process will be carried out as part of this, and we’ll engage with both the community board and local community,” Rutledge said.

Johns said BERA had passed name suggestions on to the Coastal-Burwood Community Board but as the association was fairly small, they wanted to see community engagement.

One suggestion was naming it after Amelia Rogers, a postmistress at a post office located on the river bank near Bassett St from the 1890s.

“We thought it would be great if the community could put forward some ideas and then a decision was made by them and that the community board run that,” Johns said.

“We wanted it to come from the community board because I think they would be the best to manage it,” she said. “Particularly because there might be people from Avondale that have some suggestions because it’s on both sides of the river.”

Johns said the community board seemed to be on board with BERA’s thinking and she thinks most of the members agree that referring to it as the Avondale bridge is “not ideal.”

“They seem open to the idea of investigating a new name for it anyway which is really good,” Johns said.

Burwood Ward city councillor Phil Mauger said he was disappointed the bridge wasn’t named before it’s official opening.

“It seems a bit silly that we know the bridge has been coming for five years...we weren’t on top of it,” Mauger said. “It is disappointing.”

“The Avondale Bridge just causes confusion, it is a bridge in Avondale,” he said. “It’s not the Avondale Bridge in my view.”

Mauger said the BERA was keen to name the bridge after a local identity, which he thought was a fantastic idea.

He said the Coastal-Burwood Community Board will also probably suggest some names and have a discussion about it.

“I’m totally open it’s up to the residents of the area to be happy,” he said. “I’ll agree to any name they’re happy with no problem.”

Mauger also noted that there will be two other bridges opening soon, being the Snell and Medway and wondered if these were also yet to be named.