Houses make way for bicycles
Two homes have been demolished to make way for a Christchurch cycleway meaning a ‘‘rigmarole’’ of a process nears an end for neighbouring residents.
The $6.8 million Quarryman’s Trail cycleway will run from Halswell to the central city via Sparks Rd, Roker and Antigua Sts. The first stage, which covers 4.6 kilometres from Moorhouse Ave to Victors Rd in Hoon Hay, is expected to open by the end of the month.
The Christchurch City Council demolished a standalone home on Somerfield’s Barrington St and one unit of a twounit building on Roker St to clear a space for the cycleway between the two streets.
Transport planning and delivery manager Lynette Ellis said the two properties were purchased from ‘‘willing sellers’’ and cleared in late April and during May.
Carina Green owned the demolished unit, which she was using as a rental. She said the tenants had managed to find somewhere else quickly so it ‘‘worked out OK’’.
She said she had the property valued by two real estate agents before the council made an offer. ‘‘There wasn’t really an option to negotiate the price with them. It was either that or we would go to court and we didn’t want to go down that path.’’
Treacy Lisle owns three units next to the demolished houses – one of which was attached to the demolished unit. The internal wall dividing the two units was being insulated and reclad as an external wall.
The council had initially planned to knock over all of her units, which she described as a ‘‘kick in the guts’’, as a letter from the council outlining the proposal was delivered shortly after her mother’s death in June 2016. Her mother had lived in one of the units. The plan was later changed, though the council wouldn’t confirm which houses it would demolish straight away, citing privacy.
Lisle said the process to get to this stage had been a ‘‘rigmarole’’ and she was looking forward to the work being completed.
‘‘It will be a damn weight lifted off my shoulders.’’
The upgrades have included a new crossing with traffic lights near Hoon Hay and Our Lady of Assumption schools and roundabouts replaced with traffic lights at the Sparks Rd/Lyttelton St and Hoon Hay Rd/Lyttelton St intersections. Officials warned the Government that its handling of announcements on oil and gas exploration could have a ‘‘chilling effect’’ on investment in the sector.
Yesterday morning, the Government released a series of documents related to a decision announced on April 12 to call an end to new offshore exploration permits, with a short reprieve for onshore permits in Taranaki.
The documents released show that the Government was considering a moratorium on offshore oil exploration pending the findings of a climate report, but later opted for a permanent ban.
Officials from the Ministry of Business, Employment and Innovation (MBIE) issued a warning about the impact possible moves could have on employment.
‘‘So long as industry is clear that there will be an offshore offering from 2019, which would at least include offshore Taranaki, then it is unlikely that there will be much impact on jobs or industry in the short term,’’ MBIE official James StevensonWallace wrote on the Government’s plan for a temporary stop to offshore exploration.