Traffic island halved business

Press, 6 November 1984, Page 7

Traffic island halved business

A service station’s business had been almost halved because of a badly designed traffic island, the Waimairi District Council works, reserves, and traffic committee was told last evening. Mr Frank Twort, the. owner of Chaney’s Service Station at the intersection of the Main North Road and Marshland Road, brought his lawyer and a petition of 1800 supporting signatures to the council chambers in a plea to have the island changed. Mr David Fitzgibbon, on behalf of Mr Twort, said that three problems had been identified at the intersection, after a recent onsite meeting with council staff. They were, the speed of vehicles through the intersection and consequent hazards, the irregular and unpredictable manoeuvres made by vehicles using the intersection, and the difficulty that vehicles had moving in and out of the service station. The, problems had last been reported to the council

in April, 1982. The island, which was installed in 1979 to improve road safety, had cut the accident rate, with 15 injury accidents recorded from 1975 to 1979 compared with two from 1979 until now. It had, however, also cut the service station’s business, said Mr Fitzgibbon. Mr TwOrt submitted plans for an alternative island, which would change the intersection into a more conventional round-about, imErove safety and restore usiness to the station. Most councillors said that they were concerned that if the council had erred in the original construction and adversely affected the station’s trade then prompt action was required. . A full report oh the matter will be prepared for the December meeting of the committee. The committee is concerned that council funds are being used to protect sand-hills that do not belong to it. Cr P. M. Carter said that he was surprised to discover that the council was still using money from the reserve Contribution Fund to pay for the measures taken to protect the sandhills along the Waimairi beach front. The council recently discovered that the sand-hills were were the responsibility of the Lands and Survey Department. The council does control the land between low and high tide on the sea side of the sand-hills, and the land leading up to them on the other side. The committee will recommend to the council that the matter of the spending of reserve funds on the sand-hill area not owned by the council be referred to the audit department and that protection work on that area should cease.