Closure consultation ‘a sham’

A planned year-long closure of a dangerous Nelson intersection followed a flawed and ‘‘sham’’ consultation, a rest home operator says.

About 50 residents and business owners with concerns about the closure of Hampden St attended a drop-in meeting with Nelson City Council staff on Tuesday. The council plans to close Hampden St on the western side of Waimea Rd – one of Nelson’s busiest routes – from October, because of the intersection’s high crash rate.

After the meeting, Patrick Meffan, who owns Roundhay Retirement Village on Kawai St, said the council’s group manager of infrastructure, Alec Louverdis, repeated several times that the council heard people’s concerns, but this was not enough.

‘‘It’s no good hearing people’s concerns and then saying you’re going to go ahead with what you wanted anyway. That’s a sham consultation.’’

Meffan said the council’s process in coming to the decision to close the intersection was ‘‘flawed’’, as only a small group of people were consulted. He said the process had led to the wrong solution.

‘‘Their consultant recommended that they move the traffic lights from the (Waimea Rd) crossing to the intersection, and the reason they chose not to do it was the cost and the fact that there was a greater Nelson project on traffic flows.’’

The council previously said that moving the traffic lights, either permanently or as a trial, would cost $1 million and would cause disruption for several months.

Meffan said those arguments were ‘‘spurious’’, as the problem was one that had persisted for ‘‘over a decade’’ and so could not suddenly need an urgent fix.

Louverdis said the meeting went well and involved ‘‘robust discussion’’. He indicated that the trial would be going ahead as planned.

‘‘Residents provided some valuable insights into traffic and pedestrian movements in the surrounding area, and in turn, council will now be adjusting where measurements will be taken to account for these areas,’’ he said.