Footpath extension long time coming

Lindis Capper-Starr says a shared footpath and cycleway on Kerikeri Rd should have been constructed a long time ago. ‘‘It’s a clear safety issue.’’

Kerikeri residents are delighted to hear that construction on a long awaited shared footpathcycleway will begin this month.

Local resident Lindis CapperStarr says that work on the Kerikeri Rd project should have started a long time ago.

‘‘It’s a clear safety issue,’’ she says.

‘‘People have been walking and cycling on Kerikeri Rd for a long time and there has never been a safe separation between them and the cars and trucks.’’

Construction of stage one of the footpath extension - which is proposed to eventually terminate at Hideaway Lodge on Wiroa Rd - will begin in mid August, a Far North District Council spokesperson says.

It will run from the end of the existing footpath near Hall Rd to the Old Packhouse Market and is scheduled for completion in mid- October.

Chris O’Brien no longer cycles along Kerikeri Rd as he says it is too dangerous.

But he is ‘‘delighted’’ to hear that improvements are coming.

‘‘I walk Kerikeri Rd every day and often see mothers trying to negotiate pushchairs on the grassy slope and joggers on the road.

‘‘It is an accident waiting to happen.

‘‘This should have been prioritised over anything cosmetic.’’

A New Zealand Transport Agency spokesperson says they will be contributing 60 per cent of the approximately $200,000 cost of the project.

Leigh Rockell says she first wrote to council in 1998 about an extension of the footpath near her home at the time in Access Rd.

‘‘Because it’s [Kerikeri Rd] such a busy road a footpath is a standard infrastructure for our population size.’’

She says she is ‘‘totally supportive’’ of the extension.

‘‘It will be fabulous, because people do want to get out and be active.

‘‘I have trained for three half marathons along this road, it is very dangerous.

‘‘Some of the slopes are very slippery and there is no shoulder.’’