NZTA's $90m Brougham St will be detrimental to nearby suburbs, council says
A $90 million upgrade of a busy Christchurch road could have a detrimental impact on the city’s oldest residential neighbourhoods, the city council warns.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) is proposing several changes to Brougham St, including a pedestrian overbridge, building a third lane in place of car parks, and a shared cycle-pedestrian path.
The agency wants to have “T2 lanes” during peak hours – for buses, cars with at least one passenger, or motorcycles – but the Christchurch City Council wants them to extend beyond Brougham St all the way to Rolleston. Outside of peak times they would be available for parking.
In a submission to NZTA about the project, the city council said the proposals did not adequately consider the impacts on adjoining suburbs.
Brougham St bisects some of the oldest residential suburbs in the city including Sydenham, Spreydon, Waltham and Addington.
The council was concerned the proposals would increase the noise, vibrations and emissions for residents because the traffic would be closer to homes.
Part of the project’s success relied on the council making changes to surrounding roads, and the council called on NZTA to pay for those changes.
It did not want to see ratepayers burdened financially as a result of the project, and wanted to avoid a repeat of NZTA’s northern corridor project, for which the council had to spend millions of dollars adapting local roads.
Brougham St is classed as a state highway so is the responsibility of NZTA, but the roads leading into it are under the council’s control.
An average of 45,000 vehicles, including 4500 freight vehicles and trucks, use the road each day. It is a crucial link for vehicles carrying freight to and from Lyttelton Port.
Under the proposal, intersections will be upgraded, with more traffic signals, turn arrows and bus priority lights.
The pedestrian overbridge will connect Collins St and Simeon St, which under the plan would both become vehicle cul-de-sacs.
A shared cycle-pedestrian path would be separated from the westbound lane with new trees, between Simeon St and Opawa Rd.
The council said the shared path might not be wide enough for pedestrians and cyclists to safely travel together, and wanted to see it made wider.
It was also concerned the proposals did not provide for commuter cyclists, who were unlikely to use the shared path. The council wanted an assurance there would be provision for on-road cycle lanes at least 1.8 metres wide.
However, councillor Phil Mauger said at a council meeting on Thursday commuter cyclists should be encouraged to “rat run” (take shortcuts on side roads) down another road because there was not enough room for them on Brougham St.
Cr Melanie Coker was concerned there was no provision for a right hand turn into Selwyn St, but the council believed this would lead to vehicles rat-running.
She said the community had fought for a number of years to get the turn put in and to remove it was a “slap in the face for communities”.
She wanted NZTA to put the physical work on hold so it could address all the council’s submission points.
The council also criticised NZTA for holding consultation over the summer holiday period.
Public feedback on NZTA’s proposal closes on Friday (January 28).
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Update to Neighbourly members on data breach 06/01/2025 8am
Yesterday in the High Court at Auckland, Neighbourly was successful in being granted an injunction against any unauthorised use of the data taken in a recent breach.
As we alerted you on January 1 and confirmed on January 3, our systems were accessed illegally and members’ information, including names, email addresses, GPS coordinates from the address you provided to us, forum posts and direct member communications were among the data that was accessed.
We acted immediately upon hearing of a potential breach: we temporarily disabled the site, notified members and authorities and worked with our external security consultants to understand if and how it had occurred. We then confirmed the breach with members, safely restored the site to service and began the process of seeking the injunction. Yesterday’s decision by Justice Johnstone prohibits the use of the data by any unauthorised person, and requires them to permanently delete it, or any information obtained from it.
This does not mean that vigilance against scammers is not still required: there is a large industry globally that seeks to use stolen information for identity fraud or to dupe people into providing details of their financial affairs for theft. Again, to keep yourself safe from scammers it is critical that you:
- Don’t click links in emails. Instead, type the web address directly into your browser. This helps ensure you’re visiting a real site, not a fake one
- Enable two-factor authentication where available as this adds an extra layer of security to your data
- Stay alert for phishing emails. Be cautious of unexpected emails asking for personal information, especially ones that create a sense of urgency.
Again, we want to apologise to you for this illegal access to the Neighbourly database and to assure you that we have carefully worked through how this occurred. We have safely secured the site and its services for use and ensured we have robust processes in place so this cannot happen again.
We are continuing to work with the relevant authorities, including the National Cyber Security Centre, on any further steps we need to take.
If you have any further questions please contact us via our customer support team at helpdesk@neighbourly.co.nz.
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