Tauranga City Council has agreed to take a fresh look at the route of a walkway in Papamoa that residents feared would become a corridor of crime.
Work was halted on the gravel walkway after dozens of people signed a petition opposing the path where it ran close to the boundaries of properties backing on to the Wairakei Stream Reserve, between Hartford Ave and Palm Beach Boulevard.
Petition organisers succeeded in persuading yesterday's council meeting to look at building the walkway and cycleway along the other side of the drainage reserve.
Mount Maunganui councillor David Stewart said the alternative alignment was worthy of investigation but residents should not dictate where there was a wider community perspective. "If someone thinks it can be tweaked here and there, let's do it."
The walkway was a section of what would eventually become an off-road path stretching the length of Papamoa and linking into a network that started in Bethlehem.