Potholed car park axed
A much-slated car park that’s part of a park-and-ride service to Christchurch Hospital will close and be replaced by an inner-city car-parking building.
Deans Ave car park operator Alan Edge said he was told by the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) yesterday his car park was no longer required – something he attributed to ‘‘bad press’’.
Politicians and hospital patients and visitors have all criticised the condition of the car park, namely the potholes and puddles the CDHB identified as health and safety risks, particularly to older users. However, Edge said he had spent tens of thousands of dollars on maintenance and improvements at the site, which was always intended as a stop-gap until a new multi-storey hospital car park is built in 2020.
‘‘We’ve done our best to operate a temporary car park and we just got lambasted for it,’’ he said.
The service is being replaced by the Christchurch City Council-owned Lichfield St car-park building that has 805 parks and is regularly well below capacity. The park-and-ride service will operate from there from July.
CDHB board member Aaron Keown said the arrangement with Edge, through his company Global Edge Properties, had never been optimal and the quality of the car park was disappointing. ‘‘I think the people of Christchurch have been let down by the service.
‘‘It’s certainly not at a level I’d expect, even from a temporary solution,’’ he said.
In December 2015 Global Edge entered into a contractual agreement with the CDHB to provide and operate the car park, which connected to the hospital via a shuttle service, on land owned by Neowell Investments.
Edge’s company was obliged to provide a ‘‘level and sealed or metalled surface’’, however correspondence between him and the CDHB, released under the Official Information Act, showed this proved to be an issue.
A March 2017 email to Edge advised of ‘‘mass complaints’’ from car park users concerned about ‘‘your pothole’’.
Two months later, CDHB’s lawyer sent a letter about the ‘‘numerous potholes’’ and made a formal request that Edge meet his obligations under the agreement and provide improved site lighting. Redesign of Lyttelton’s new cruise berth has increased the estimated cost of $56 million, and port residents will have to contend with about 18 months of noise from pile driving.
Lyttelton Port Company chief executive Peter Davie said changing the design to minimise impact on protected Hector’s dolphins in the harbour and to ensure safe handling of giant cruise ships had added to the cost – ‘‘it will be millions.’’
Although talks with a contractor were under way, the final price would not be firmed up until December, and Davie expected any increase to be funded by insurance proceeds and borrowing.
The sheer size of vessels carrying 6000 passengers forced realignment of the berth which will have bollards three times the size of those used in other areas of the port.
‘‘We have measured the side of these vessels and they’re about 2ha . . . for these ships we’re building 150 tonne bollards; there’s no other way when you are in a windy place like this.’’
Pile driving will begin in early July, occur intermittently six days a week, and take about 18 months.