Trucks concern residents

Press, 4 December 1985, Page 6

Trucks concern residents

Sawyers Arms Road residents are concerned about what they say is an increasing number of trucks going along their road causing damage to their properties and endangering lives. They want the Waimairi District Council to restrain traffic on the road. One of the residents, Mr Conway Jack, last evening presented the council’s works, reserves and traffic committee with a submission calling for restraints. He told the committee that a number of residents were concerned about the speed of the trucks and in particular about the hazards they posed for residents and schoolchildren using the road. Last year about 45 of the road’s residents presented the council with a petition expressing similar concerns. At that time 360 trucks were counted using the road on one day (between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m.)

The number of trucks had increased dramatically since then, said Mr Jack, with 617 counted on the road for the same period on October 24 this year. Many of those trucks were travelling well over the 50km/h speed limit, he said. He briefly outlined four non-injury accidents and two fatal accidents which had involved trucks using the road in the last two months. The Ministry of Transport’s Christchurch chief traffic officer, Mr Bill Noster, said that since May the traffic enforcement level on Sawyers Arms Road had been higher than on any other road in his district. About 100 speeding tickets had been issued since May; only six of them to truck-drivers, he said. Mr Noster said that at times unidentified Ministry cars had been used and yet

no speeding trucks had been detected. The Ministry would continue its surveillance of the road, he said. The District Chairman, Mrs Margaret Murray, asked whether the problem of heavy traffic on the road was because of the lack of a northern arterial. The Deputy District Engineer, Mr Gary Main, said that some of the problem probably was related to that but he would investigate it further. Mrs Murray said that she raised the question because of the lack of interest in developing and funding a northern arterial shown by a local Minister of the Crown. If there was a problem, because there was no north-

ern arterial it could only get worse. Mr Jack outlined several proposals for slowing traffic on the road which had been drawn up with an environmental engineer. The committee will recommend to the council that staff investigate the problem and the proposals and report back early next year. Liquor ban The perennial issue of whether liquor will be allowed at Spencer Park on New Year’s Eve was dealt with swiftly. A liquor ban will be imposed at the park from 6 p.m. on December 31 to 6 a.m. on January 1, but not

on campers (or their visitors) within tents, caravans, and cabins. Spa pools Visitors to Jellie Park Aqualand will be able to soak in spa pools this summer. The council has decided to buy two Cresta spa pools with the $20,000 Telethon grant to the disabled. The pools should be installed before Christmas. The eight-person spa pools will be semi-covered with a canvas hood and will be open at normal pool hours to all as well as at special times for disabled persons. The proposed charge will be $2 a person for a 20-minute soak.