Street changes ‘a try before buy’
Moves to make a central Hamilton thoroughfare a more friendly environment for pedestrians and cyclists are fully inclusive and won’t repeat the mistakes of the past.
That’s the view of two Hamilton politicians who have spoken out in response to revelations that business owners in Ward St were awaiting a trial reconfiguration of the street – which will involve the removal of most of the street’s 36 on-street car parks – with trepidation.
But unlike Deputy Mayor Geoff Taylor, who has backed the business owners, councillors Angela O’Leary and Sarah Thomson say the temporary changes to the street will benefit those making a living there.
The $902,000 ‘‘Innovating Streets for Change’’ trial is being conducted in partnership with Waka Kotahi, which will fund 90 per cent of the cost.
A portion of nearby Rostrevor St will also be closed off to traffic from April 19 until early July as part of the project, and the Ward St changes will begin at the end of the month.
Taylor slammed the plan, saying it was ideologically-driven and the Ward St retailers in particular were being treated like guinea pigs.
However O’Leary, who is championing the Innovating Streets projects, said it was important to emphasise the changes were only temporary.
‘‘It’s a try before you buy situation. ‘‘What we don’t want is something like what happened with Hood St, where the council of the time made all these changes and then after the work was done we found out that this didn’t work out, and that didn’t work out.’’
The 2007/08 $5.1 million upgrade of Hood St was hampered by poor planning, design, project management, construction and communication.
That project included the installation of low-lying ‘‘rain gardens’’ that cost $300,000 and later had to be removed because people kept tripping over them.
There was no chance of such a debacle this time, said O’Leary, because the changes to Ward St had been the focus of at least four inclusive workshops that had included business owners in the street having their say on the design, along with student representatives from Hamilton Girls’ High School, disability advocate Tim Young, and creative arts sector representative Paul Bradley.
‘‘It’s also just a temporary thing, so if a business comes to us and says a customer can’t get to me, or a particular thing is not working for me, then we can look at it and change it before it becomes permanent. It’s a good use of ratepayer money.
‘‘It has been a very, very long process to get to this point and nothing has been predetermined. At the first workshop everyone was working from blank sheets of paper.’’
Young said he was heartened that the disabled community had been allowed to have a voice in the design process.
‘‘Usually we find out something is inaccessible only after they have finished building it.
Thomson said she could understand why the business owners were nervous, ‘‘but you can’t improve the street and the environment without change’’.
‘‘There’s still 627 car parks within one minute’s walk of Ward St. There is a lot of really good evidence showing that making streets more peoplefriendly is really good for the businesses there.