Berms blindsided

Some Mt Eden residents are lamenting the loss of their roadside gardens, replaced with concrete for Rugby World Cup punters to walk on, writes Rebecca Blithe.
Victoria Toon carefully navigates the churned-up path outside her Mt Eden home. She points out a dusty, narrow planter box where her plants once grew almost a metre out to the line of the old footpath.
Mrs Toon, who battled to save the small strip for greenery, was frustrated to read our March 24 report that Aucklanders are planting gardens on grass berms while her street is turned into a "concrete jungle" for crowds heading to Eden Park.
"They bulldozed my agapanthus. They took out camellias over on Altham Ave. How come people over in Grey Lynn can have gardens and we can't?
"I don't want to plant fruit trees or be obstructive. I love living here, but we're being left with footpaths that are just concrete everywhere. No greenery."
Mrs Toon has lived in her home for five years and doesn't intend to move. Her street is one of eight in the Eden Park precinct Auckland Transport is altering.
The organisation took over maintenance and upgrading responsibilities in November last year and is preparing the streets for the pending games.
"Consultation" has been ineffective, says Mrs Toon, and she wasn't aware her garden was destined for the dump until a worker knocked on her door.
Had she been out, she would have returned to find her garden gone and concrete right to her fence line, she says.
Instead, Mrs Toon sat among her agapanthus and refused to budge for bulldozers. "It was only after I refuted the new footpath that they conducted a survey of my property boundaries," says Mrs Toon.
It was found that her property extended slightly further than her fence line and she then negotiated an extra 10cm - making a total of 20cm - for planting.
The spokeswoman for Auckland Transport, Sharon Hunter, says Mrs Toon's street and nearby Altham Ave have been identified as walking routes to Eden Park from Dominion Rd and Morningside railway station.
"A combination of high numbers of pedestrians are expected to walk to the stadium at the Rugby World Cup from the train stations, taxi stands or cars parked outside the area.
"Following Rugby World Cup 2011, we anticipate these attractive streets will continue to be utilised as walking routes for events at Eden Park."
But Mrs Toon believes Walters Rd is not a main thoroughfare. "They don't realise Onslow [Rd, parallel to Walters Rd] is a main thoroughfare. This road is always closed off so people walk down the middle rather than taking the footpaths," she says.
Eden Park Neighbours Association president Mark Donnelly, who lives down the road from Mrs Toon, says the work has distressed residents.
"It's obviously been a little bit fraught. People didn't realise they'd lose their gardens. There's bits of Walters Rd that have taken three weeks. I think a lot of people have found it very disruptive," he says.
Ms Hunter says Auckland Transport has received two complaints since the project started early last month.
Coming to your street
Auckland Council's manager of local and sports' parks, Mark Bowater, says Auckland
Transport will take over management of all berms across the region within the next
few years.