Letter went against council’s SH1 vote

SIX Dunedin councillors at odds with their council’s advocacy for twoway traffic on State Highway 1 in central Dunedin warned Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency it could cause a calamity.

The move prompted Dunedin Mayor Aaron Hawkins to apologise to an agency staff member for the ‘‘unsolicited correspondence to your CEO’’.

A councillor sympathetic to the views of the dissenting councillors did not sign their letter, because he said it was an appalling misuse of process, undermining a democratic decision.

The letter, sent by Cr Jules Radich and backed by five other councillors, came after Mr Hawkins wrote to Waka Kotahi presenting reasons why the council had voted to support a twoway proposal ‘‘being advanced as the basis for future discussion’’.

The other five councillors behind the letter were Carmen Houlahan, Andrew Whiley, Lee Vandervis, Rachel Elder and Doug Hall.

Crs Vandervis and Hall were not present for the vote, which the minority bloc lost 57.

The six councillors said they wanted to ‘‘bring some balance’’ and they argued for a programme of works that included retaining the SH1 pair of oneway routes, which was also what the Waka Kotahi board favoured.

Safety was one reason cited. ‘‘Doubling the number of trucks on a road through the heart of our student area as well as converting it to twoway traffic is also a recipe for calamity,’’ the councillors said. Liveability was another reason. ‘‘Excessive congestion drives frustration, disillusionment and even anger,’’ they said.

Waka Kotahi is expected to make a final call about oneway or twoway traffic in the first quarter of 2023.

The correspondence from February this year was released this week under the Official Information Act.

Cr Radich, a mayoralty candidate, said yesterday the council had acted against the will of the people, who clearly wanted the oneway system to stay.

Mr Hawkins said everybody on the council lost votes from time to time.

‘‘That’s the nature of democracy, and we need to accept it.