Reducing speed limit in Dallington a priority for residents’ association

Speed bumps were installed on Gayhurst Rd near the City to Sea Pathway in December, but drivers...
Speed bumps were installed on Gayhurst Rd near the City to Sea Pathway in December, but drivers increase their speed around the Educational Child Care Centre (above), its manager said. Photo: Supplied
By Jack Ward

Getting the speed limit in the heart of Dallington down to 40km/h is a key priority for the suburb’s residents’ association this year.

The Dallington Residents Association will lobby the city council out of safety concerns.

“A 40 km/h slow zone is something I’ll be actioning this year,” said chair Bebe Frayle.

Bebe Frayle.
Bebe Frayle.
Gayhurst Rd is the main road in the suburb. It has a current speed of 50km/h.

Speed bumps were installed on Gayhurst Rd where it intersects with the City to Sea Pathway in December. That hasn’t affected driver speeds, Frayle said.

“They speed up because they see the red zone and it’s all green so you feel like you’re in the country and then you come round the corner and there is a childcare centre.”

The Educational Child Care Centre on Gayhurst Rd is backing the association’s plan.

“We notice they increase speed around us because the speed bumps are further up the road,” said centre manager Sarah Matenga.

“We arrived a couple years ago to find a car had crashed into a power pole by the centre and we had to send the kids home because we had no power,” she said.

Matenga has been at the centre for 24 years. It is licensed for 36 children.

There were safety measures in place around pick-ups, she said.

“There is high vigilance for us, so families with more than one child we will have teachers walking out with them to take them to the car.”

She said they were lucky none of the children had been injured – or worse.

“We have been incredibly fortunate so far.”

Frayle said Woodham Rd, on the other side of Dallington Bridge, has a reduced speed of 30km/h.

However, once drivers turn off Woodham Rd onto Gloucester St, which runs into Gayhurst Rd, they speed up.

“We’ll be looking at why (Woodham Rd has) a reduced speed but not us, the reduced speed in the wrong place.”

The Educational Child Care Centre on Gayhurst Rd. Photo: Supplied
The Educational Child Care Centre on Gayhurst Rd. Photo: Supplied
Speed limits are set to change from now until July 1, when the Government reverses Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions on local streets, arterial roads and state highways.

Frayle was aware of the changes and said this would be raised in the association’s first meeting of the year, with a view to preparing a submission.

“That is a line of inquiry we want to go to the council with, because if we don’t make a noise, the council won’t do anything.”

Traffic was a continuing issue in the suburb, said Frayle, who has been chair since 2016.

“It is mostly people doing doughnuts and hooning around Gayhurst Rd, and the top of Cresswell Ave, McBratneys Rd and Sutton Pl are hotspots.”

Another focal point for the association was dumping.

“We have skip day in September that ties in with Keep NZ Beautiful Week, it is an annual event where the residents’ association hires a couple of skips and we encourage people to come and put their big bits of rubbish in it.”

The association’s first meeting of the year is at 7pm on February 11 at Trade Aid on Gayhurst Rd. It meets monthly from February to December on the second Tuesday of the month.