05-05-2025
Pupils' safety request met with questions
Portobello children, pleading their case for safety improvements around their school, did not escape a few tough questions from one Dunedin city councillor.
At yesterday's long-term plan hearing, three Portobello School pupils asked the council to finish Te Awa Ōtākou, which they said would fix dangerous roads around their school.
Also known as the Peninsula Connection, the project aims to improve road safety, forming part of a shared path around Otago Harbour, but sections on the peninsula remain incomplete.
Pupils Robin Luff, Bella Monteith and Ivy Larkins had submitted on the same topic at last year's annual plan hearing and again "respectfully" asked the council to finish the project.
After their submission, Cr Lee Vandervis had some questions.
"Are you aware that we've already spent over $100 million on the cycleway out to the peninsula?" he asked.
"Are you aware that the extra bit of cycleway you're talking about doesn't meet [NZ Transport Authority Waka Kotahi] safety priorities?
"And are you aware that the data that we now have on the last four years of cycleway use shows that despite all the money we've been spending, that cycleway use hasn't increased in the last four years?"
Portobello School teacher Cheryl Neill stepped in to answer.
"We do know that you've spent an awful lot of money, which we appreciate, but we would really like it just down to the end of Harington Point Rd."
Cr Brent Weatherall asked if it was fair the final stages of the project would be entirely council funded.
Ms Neill said in an "ideal world" there would be government funding — "but no, it's not fair".
The pupils told the council the road past their school was unsafe — a section of road some called "the death hole".
"It is a place where many people, including me, walk when we go to school or take our young siblings to kindergarten," Ivy said.
Speeding locals and tourists and big vehicles did not leave much room for error, she said.
"The road is old and dangerous. We don't want it to be dangerous."
Yesterday, four other submitters spoke in support of Te Awa Ōtākou, including Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou ūpoko Edward Ellison, who also asked the council to complete the project.
Speaking to the rūnanga's submission, Mr Ellison said he was pleased to see the completed sections of Te Awa Ōtākou were well used — completing the project would improve safety for all road users.
"It came as a surprise to us to find that after the upgrade had been completed, that we are left in a bereft situation from Portobello out.
"The traffic is faster, there's much more of it and people are not stock-aware, nor are they road-aware, many of them."
The hearings are expected to run for the rest of the week.
