Broken footpath annoys locals
Residents in West Harbour are concerned about a stretch of footpath left in ruins after a building site has been abandoned. The two loose gravel paths - which were cut across the residential footpath as access to the construction site are causing users to walk out onto the road or cross to avoid it. Residents say the site has been abandoned since around November last year.
Patricia Ives, who lives in the area, says she won’t walk over the gravel as she’s frightened of twisting her ankle.
She’s also seen children, owners with dogs, and parents with prams avoiding it. Ives says the issue started in February 2015 when the footpath was broken up to make the accessways.
‘‘They left all the big pieces of concrete that they’d broken up... for everybody to walk over,’’ she says. ‘‘You couldn’t walk over [the concrete] or the gravel, it was too dangerous.’’
Ives contacted Auckland Council, who arranged for the pieces of concrete to be removed and two strips of asphalt put in either side of the paths. Still concerned about the ongoing usability of the footpath, she emailed Auckland Transport three times between June and August this year, however only received responses to let her know her message would be forwarded to the relevant department.
Neighbours Lindsay and Dawn Bertaut have also contacted Auckland Council twice with their concerns about the footpath and onsite rubbish. They were initially advised both issues would be dealt with by end of February.
‘‘They don’t need the footpath to be like that now - all the heavy trucks have been in,’’ Lindsay says. He emailed again in June and was advised the site would be secured, rubbish removed and walkways free of obstruction by June 24. Auckland Council manager compliance, resource consents Steve Pearce says monitoring inspectors have visited the property and spoken with the developer about the identified issues and sought action to try to address them. Pearce says staff will visit the site again this week to see what actions might be able to be taken and contact the developer again to try to resolve the situation. AT media relations manager Mark Hannan says AT regrets Ives hasn’t been kept fully informed. He says weather permitting, they aim to make repairs to the vehicle crossings this week.