Cycleway eyesore

The community has not been consulted about a cycle path to be built along the UretaraWalkway.

A 2.4m concrete cycle way is coming. This is wider than most of the walking and cycling paths round Katikati but I am told cyclists need this width for passing each other.

Walk along the one round Summerset to see a model, and notice especially the effect of building a level concrete strip has on the adjoining slopes. On the Uretara Walkway it will be more than half the width of the grass walkway in places.

The residents most affected are those living along the walkway but the many people living further afield who also use the walkway deserve to know what’s going on. The local residents only learned about the coming construction when people were seen measuring the walkway and the word spread.

The members of the Uretara Estuary Managers who put hundreds of volunteer hours into improving the walkway by con- trolling rats and mice, planting hundreds of native plants and reducing pest plants on one or both banks of the walkway, as well as clearing mangroves from the nearby mudflats, deserve to be part of a conversation that has not yet started. (The rodents are still being controlled, many people are maintaining the plantings in front of their homes and the mangrove seedlings on cleared parts of the estuary are still being removed legally.

At present many cyclists — sometimes up to 12 in a group — are riding along the grasswalkway without complaint, some with e-bikes but many with manual mountain bikes. At least one I know is in his 80s (no e-bike for him). The pedestrians, dogs and cyclists are enjoying our beautiful walkway, the finest in Katikati. The cycleway, like a long pale tapeworm snaking along the grass, will be a permanent eyesore.

Why did it come like a bolt from the blue, never discussed by our community?

ROSALIE SMITH Katikati