Divert logging trucks to Awapuni Road

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Two months ago I wrote to Gisborne District Council about our concerns over how logging trucks are ruining Lytton Road and other inner-city roads. I never received a reply.

Lytton Road is a busy road and needs to be treated with respect. A logging truck weigh station is in lower Lytton Road — these trucks should be using back Awapuni Road to come and go to this facility. Don’t use Lytton Road.

Better still, move the weigh station to the back of Awapuni Road, maybe to Dunstan Road. Out of mind and out of sight, and we will have better roads.

Here are some reasons why they should not be on Lytton Road:

1. Each time a logging truck goes past a house, it causes tremors; it’s like living with earthquake shakes all day.

2. Mortar and cladding are cracking or falling off walls.

3. Floorboards now creak, the fireplace shimmers and shakes.

4. An elderly pensioner told me when trucks pass her home her wairua and hinengaro are being damaged because her house shakes; this is caused also by the bad roads and deep ruts.

5. Elgin shopping area is very busy, with people everywhere.

6. Elgin is predominantly a Maori and Islander-populated area. Who cares about our people? It seems to be money before people.

7. We have two schools, Cobham and Elgin, where children have to cross the roads to get to their chosen schools — and it can be quite dangerous.

8. We have at least three lots of pensioner flats and a kohanga reo in Elgin. Some are afraid to sit in the shelter shed because of the shuddering when the trucks go by.

As Mr A. Abbott said “fix the bloody roads”. We say “fix the bloody roads and divert the trucks to back Awapuni Road”.

Irate pensioners/ratepayers