Footpath deal plan moving along
A missing piece of a Tākaka walking loop is finally about to be closed with Fonterra ceding land for a footpath outside its dairy factory.
The dairy giant, in response to questions from Stuff, confirmed that an easement agreement allowing the pavement is expected to be finalised this month.
Golden Bay councillor Celia Butler has kept a careful watch on the project, raising it numerous times in council meetings last year, including at an operations committee meeting in December.
In the meeting, Butler said she asked about the progress of the footpath on every occasion because it was “held up with Fonterra not actually coming on board with it”.
“The last I heard they were worried the footpath extension was going to interfere with the milk tankers,” she said.
In December 2022, the Tasman District Council received $5.64 million of central Government’s Better Off funding for 25 projects around the district. Of these funds, $200,000 was earmarked for a Tākaka footpath extension, a piece of pavement that would complete the loop around the township between Fonterra’s dairy factory and Motupipi St.
Butler said the Golden Bay Community Board successfully put forward a proposal to get that put in place, and an engineering assessment was done.
That determined the path would need to go to the opposite side of the street, onto Fonterra land, so a crossing would be needed too.
Butler said she was “immediately” contacted about the issue as soon as she was elected as a councillor four years ago, and a pavement was needed for people from Sunbelt Cresent and Three Oaks to be able to walk to town safely with children and prams.
In a statement, a Fonterra spokesperson said the company was “fully supportive of the footpath” and wanted to ensure it was in the safest possible location.
Fonterra was working with the council to finalise the easement agreement, which
In a statement, a Fonterra spokesperson said the company was “fully supportive of the footpath”.
was expected to be completed by the end of the month.
Once that was done, construction work on footpath would be able to start, the statement said.