Path of conflict at popular reserve

Widening a footpath through a popular river reserve cannot come soon enough to stop ‘‘objectionable’’ cyclist behaviour, says a resident.

The Marlborough District Council is to widen the Taylor River Reserve’s concrete path from 1.8 metres to 3m along several stretches, in one of several upgrades planned for the reserve over the coming decade.

Nearby resident Chris Fletcher said she was glad widening plans were in the works, as the current footpath was ‘‘not wide enough to be a shared path’’.

‘‘The path is shared, I know, but in some places [it] really is not wide enough for both walkers and cyclists ... in my opinion I do not see why, as a walker, I have to get off the path for a cyclist, who could quite easily go around me,’’ she said.

Fletcher said she was upset by the number of cyclists who expected walkers to move. ‘‘The cyclists are appalling. Their behaviour is unbelievable,’’ she said. ‘‘Even little old ladies on bikes are objectionable.’’

Fletcher recalled a time when she was walking along the river and heard a bike bell behind her, so she moved over on the footpath, but the cyclist kept ringing her bell.

‘‘I asked her, ‘What do you want? You’ve got enough room to go around me.’ And she said, ‘I want you to get off the path.’ It’s mad. That’s what you do when a cyclist comes along there, you have to get off the path,’’ she said.

Cyclists using the reserve to train for events also told walkers to move, she said. Fletcher said a man once shouted ‘‘coming through’’, then biked past her ‘‘doing a thousand miles an hour’’, forcing her to move from the middle of the path. ‘‘This is not the place to train at 50kmh,’’ she said.

A council report said that the estimated 12,000 square metres of extra footpath would cost about $500,000, excluding labour costs. A repeat drink-driver ordered not to drive after borrowing a car to get around his alcohol interlock has been caught taking his car to be serviced.

Marcus Dampier-crossley was the first person in Marlborough to get an alcohol interlock under new legislation for repeat drinkdrivers last year, so he had to pass a breath test in order to start his car.

But he was caught drinkdriving a different car in June, and admitted charges of drinkdriving and breaching his alcohol interlock licence at the Blenheim District Court last week, with a bail condition not to drive.

His interlock licence required him to get his car serviced monthly, so data from the interlock device could be downloaded, and any failed breath tests recorded for the court. He needed six months without a failed test to get rid of the interlock.

Police said they caught Dampier-crossley driving his car on Monday morning, breaching the bail condition that prevented him from driving.

He made a voluntary appearance at court shortly afterwards, with his lawyer John Holdaway