Elderly residents lead protest over expressway
PLACARD-WIELDING octogenarians have led a protest against the buy-up of properties to make way for the McKays to Peka Peka section of the Kapiti Expressway.
About 40 protesters, many in their 80s, held placards emblazoned with slogans including ‘‘Motorway Madness’’ and ‘‘Natio- nal Does Not Care’’, as they staged a protest outside Murray Livingstone’s garden centre on the corner of State Highway 1 and Poplar Ave, Raumati South, yesterday.
The New Zealand Transport Agency is negotiating with Mr Livingstone to buy his property, which is needed for the southern entrance of the expressway. He has been given further time to consider the latest valuation, but says he has nowhere else to go.
Barbara Mountier, 83, at the forefront of the protest, said Mr Livingstone had owned his garden centre business for 19 years and had now lost his business and home.
Lobby group Save Kapiti has lodged an appeal against the granting of consents to build the expressway, which is scheduled to be heard on July 12.
Bobbie Taylor, 81, said yesterday’s protest was ‘‘just the beginning’’. ‘‘This motorway is just going to be rammed through . . . We will come back any time NZTA tries to take control of land’’.
Hilda Daw, 82, said the motorway would destroy the village atmosphere of Raumati South.
NZTA is adamant that no-one was being evicted from any properties before the agency had bought them. ‘‘No-one has been told that they will be evicted on any date. We are still working through negotiations with several property owners, and hope to reach agreement in the near future,’’ a spokesman said.
The agency originally intended to start work on the $630 million project yesterday, but has delayed it until the outcome of Save Kapiti’s High Court appeal.