Residents voice concerns over Hampden closure
People affected by the planned partial closure of Nelson’s Hampden St are worried that the closed intersection with Waimea Rd will cause a mess of unintended consequences.
Resident Dianne Goodwin said that apart from the inconvenience, she was concerned about how emergency services would access Hampden St west and its associated network of smaller roads, and how they would get out again if the road was physically blocked as proposed by Nelson City Council in the trial closure.
‘‘I’d like to see a fire engine, ambulance or police car turn around in there . . . when cars are parked on either side of the road, it becomes one way.’’
Goodwin also was unimpressed with the notification process for the trial closure, which is expected to run for a year from October.
She said she received a letter in the last week of June, while she was away on holiday, and it was only thanks to her son checking her mail that she knew about it.
‘‘We had one week to respond. I sent an email, but I never got a reply . . . it took me a few days out of my holiday with my family to craft that, and then [the council] didn’t even have the decency to respond to my letter.’’
Kim Westerink, who lives on Hampden St and co-owns a food truck, said the change in access would make getting the truck out on to the roads much trickier.
‘‘The truck is low and wide. The other streets out of here are Locking St and Alfred St, which both have speed bumps that we can’t get over, or Kawai St, which is in such a state of disrepair.
‘‘They’re just making things really difficult for us.’’
Westerink said it seemed like only residents who wanted the change had been consulted, and she did not receive the letter which some residents got.
‘‘If you don’t know they’re doing this, you have no way of being a part of it.
‘‘There’s all the people on Locking St who are going to be really affected, and [the council] never gave them letters.’’
She said she was trying to look on the bright side because ‘‘it’s going to happen’’.
‘‘The year-long trial is a really long time, but the decision was made before [councillors] got into that room.’’
Clare Scott, who has addressed the council about several unsafe streets, including Hampden St, said the closure of the intersection, while not exactly what she had hoped for, was a step in the right direction.
‘‘What I’ve said all along, I would really suggest putting in a signalled intersection. There’s a crossing about 15 metres down the road. What I suggest is moving that to the intersection.’’
‘‘My understanding was they’re doing this trial because they can’t trial lights.
‘‘I don’t think just closing it off is a good long-term solution, but at least they recognise that this is a serious safety issue.’’
Scott said that while the closure would make the intersection safer for children and cyclists, it could risk making other intersections just as dangerous by moving traffic there instead.
‘‘By closing this one, they’re going to make Franklyn St even worse, and that’s already uncrossable for kids. If anything, it’s worse than Hampden.’’
Council transport engineering adviser Sue McAuley said this was something the council was aware of and would be monitoring during the trial.
‘‘We had a look at where we thought [traffic stress points] were going to be, and focused our monitoring programme on where that’s going to go.’’
She said trafic lights would be ‘‘very, very difficult’’ to trial. It would cost up to $1 million, which she said could take several years to work into the council’s budget, and the lights would take several months to install, which would disrupt traffic on Waimea Rd, Hampden St west, and Hampden St east.
The one-year closure trial will cost $55,000.
McAuley said feedback from Hampden St residents meant that in future, the council would include more consultation, including from surrounding streets.
Council group manager of infrastructure Alec Louverdis said the reason the trial closure didn’t need formal consultation, unlike the closure of upper Trafalgar St, was because it was a ‘‘health and safety issue’’ and because there had been several submissions on the intersection in the council’s annual plan.
‘‘We felt that something needed to be done this side of the election. If this was going to be permanent, then it would be a different process.’’
He said that if in a year’s time the council decided to close the intersection permanently, there would be a formal public consultation and people could make submissions to the council then.
He said trials were a valuable method for the council to find out what solutions would or wouldn’t work.
‘‘We don’t know how this is going to turn out, but unless we try, then we won’t know.’’
‘‘There’s all the people on Locking St who are going to be really affected, and [the council] never gave them letters.’’