Frustrated Ashburton councillors call out ‘road cone mania’

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

An Ashburton councillor has hit out "road cone mania" in the town and is calling on the council to follow Auckland's lead on the issue.

Councillor Richard Wilson said he is a fan of Auckland mayor Wayne Brown's crusade to make health and safety realistic.

The Auckland mayor commissioned an independent report into the temporary traffic management system in Auckland.

The Ernst & Young Global Limited report found existing rules and regulations incentivised contractors to cause maximum disruption to maximise profits.

The report showed that under the direction of Brown, Auckland Transport had reduced its temporary traffic management spend by $1.27 million since February.

Mid Canterbury farmer Ray Logan expressed frustration with the “over-the-top” use of road cones on Walnut Ave in Ashburton at the start of July.

He said the number of cones is completely unnecessary.

Councillor Carolyn Cameron shared her frustration with the Walnut Ave situation, where “there are lots of road cones, and I’m sure they are all about a metre apart”.

“Then we also have fences and more road cones on the fences. It is annoying.”

The council’s infrastructure and open spaces group manager, Neil McCann, said health and safety around roadworks included a risk analysis and looks at "the worst case scenario”, McCann said.

The Walnut Ave area is deemed high risk, he said

Cameron countered that, suggesting the wall of road cones was making it a higher risk because there is no parking and “college students are taking risks with their driving because it’s all road cones”.

“It’s possibly road cone mania gone bonkers.”

The work on Walnut Avenue to put in a new kerb and channel along the length of the Ashburton Domain was scheduled to be completed by now.

McCann said the winter weather was causing delays as the timing for the work was less than ideal.

“We had the money available and wanted to do it using subsidised money before the end of the last year, so we just had to get it going to utilise that money.

“It wasn’t the best time of year admittedly, and unfortunately we have been caught out with rain that has delayed the work.”

Ashburton mayor Neil Brown said tenders needed to go out earlier to avoid any repeats as the roading programme has traditionally viewed March as the most appropriate sealing time.

The tender for this year’s roading programme is already under way, McCann said.