Horowhenua Chronicle

GETTING AROUND LEVIN

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Do you feel safe out there getting around your community? Some of us do, some don’t. Are our roads and footpaths fit for purpose? Some are, some are not.

Can you, as older people, access the goods and services around our CBD that you need to get to?

Is parking in and around Oxford Street and the Mall car park adequate, and does it meet your needs?

How do you feel about using Oxford Street now that all the heavy traffic is being diverted through town because of the road works on SH 57?

You don’t have to answer those questions, but you would be wise to reflect on your responses.

The Horowhenua District Council very wisely signed up to the World Health Organisati­on’s “Age Friendly Cities” initiative­s. Having spent time with the Mayor and Council staff we can state that they are very much in favour of the initiative­s.

The problems that they, we and you face is getting the work done to meet the goals that have been set. What is even more difficult is that while HDC controls our local roads and streets, they have no control over the actions of NZTA / Waka Kotahi when it comes to state highways.

The result is that with the O2NL project slowed to an infant’s crawl, Transmissi­on Gully further delayed and the upgrade of Kimberly Road / SH 57, Oxford Street and side streets such as Bath, Tararua and Queen have become the major access points for through traffic to Palmerston North. Forty-foot rigs are rumbling down our streets right through the night causing all manner of chaos and stress on our already overloaded urban street system. Then throw in the ever-decaying footpath system, lack of ‘meaningful’ pedestrian crossings and the pressure of local families needing to get to and from schools etc, and you would have to suggest that our streets are simply not safe and as a community we are not meeting the goals set for an “Age Friendly Community”.

We at Grey Power do not have the solutions to many of the barriers to safe movement around Levin, but we would like to work with Council to try and find some useful answers.

As a footnote: our Mayor, speaking at a meeting was heard to say, “Don’t park in Oxford Street, the parking is dreadful”. Enough said!

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