Kaiapoi open drain still not to be fenced

Press, 11 April 1984, Page 4

Kaiapoi open drain still not to be fenced

A move to fence off an open drain beside the Pines Beach Road walkway was again defeated at a meeting of the Kaiapoi Borough Council this week. A petition of pbout 265 signatures was presented to the council by a deputation of residents. It asked that the council either fence or pipe the open drain between Meadow Street and the footbridge on Beach Road. The petition was started by parents of children at Kaiapoi North school who were concerned about the safety of children using the walkway. The drain was about 2% or three metres wide and about 400 metres long, said the residents. The walkway which was often used by schoolchildren, was fenced off from Beach Road but not from the drain. In February, Cr P. I. Redmond unsuccessfully moved to have the drain fenced off. His motion this week to have a fence built was defeated on the casting vote of the Mayor, Mr H. W. Cumberland. However, Mr Cumberland

then successfully moved that piping of the drain be added to the council’s National Roads Board programme. There would be no definite date for this work, it would be done when there was money available and the National Roads Board decided, Mr Cumberland said. Earlier he told the council it had no real jurisdiction over the walkway. He had spoken to a class of pupils at North school and their main concern was the speed of traffic on Beach Road, not the walkway, he said. He and officers from the Kaiapoi council had discussed the issue with the Rangiora District Council and both councils agreed that the drain needed to be piped. Several councillors said a fence could only be a temporary solution, in the long term the drain needed to be piped. Cr Redmond said fencing the drain would not preclude piping it. However, a fence would make the drain

safer and allay the fears of parents in the meantime. Cr L. N. Price queried the works engineer’s quote of $4OOO for a fence and suggested this figure was used as a deterrent His own calculations suggested a fence would cost about $llOO. A fence would help the immediate problem by offering protection until the drain was piped. Promotion Council The council agreed to pay a grant of $1547 to the Canterbury Promotion Council. The grant is calculated at 31c for every person in the borough, an increase of 1.5 c a head on the 1983-84 grant. Cyclists Cyclists in Ohoka Road were using the footpaths and gutters as racing tracks and their riding was very dangerous, Cr Price said. He asked that the area be closely watched by the borough’s traffic officers.