Black is back as red chip bites the dust

Distinctive footpaths in St Heliers Bay.

A slice of Auckland City history has come to an end, with the decision yesterday to tear up hundreds of kilometres of red-chip footpaths in favour of one-size-fits-all black concrete footpaths in every suburban street.

Months of prompting by senior officers to go for the "consistent look and feel" of black concrete paid dividends when Mayor Dick Hubbard yesterday sided with City Vision-Labour and Citizens & Ratepayers Now councillors at a joint transport and arts, culture and recreational committee meeting to end more than 50 years of red-chip footpaths.

Mr Hubbard, City Vision-Labour leader Dr Bruce Hucker and C&R Now leader Scott Milne stopped a last-ditch attempt by Action Hobson councillors Christine Caughey and Richard Simpson and independent Faye Storer to keep the red-chip footpaths in the city's character suburbs.

A group of about 15 Epsom and Newmarket residents also pleaded at the meeting to keep red-chip footpaths. They were angry about getting hefty rates bills at the same time as their footpath colour preference was being ignored.

"This [decision] will see the end of of red-chip, which has been a feature of Auckland's streetscape for many decades ... and is inconsistent with the council's rules on heritage in the district plan," said lawyer and group spokesman Stuart Ryan.

After a sometimes testy three-hour debate, councillors asked officers to investigate any individual exemptions to the new footpath policy. Transport general manager Dr Stephen Rainbow said he had no plan to "proactively investigate" exemptions.

Dr Rainbow said he was ashamed of the state of the city's footpaths and the report to councillors was unequivocally in favour of a single footpath colour in suburban streets.

By getting certainty, officers would be able to start a $260 million 10-year programme to upgrade footpaths. Later, he said most footpaths needing repair were red-chip.

The exemption clause was slammed by Christine Caughey as "policy on the hoof". She predicted it would create uncertainty and a barrage of public criticism.

A lot of the debate centred on the heritage and urban design merits of red-chip versus black concrete with the council's, new urban design champion, Ludo Campbell-Reid, rebutting suggestions that black concrete would create a bland landscape.

The issue was about safe, clean, long-lasting, well-maintained and accessible pavements, Mr Campbell-Reid said.

Eden-Albert Community Board member Wendy Davies said "public opinion should not be used as an urban design tool", leading Hobson Community Board chairman David Simpson to berate the "Stalinist-type comments that public opinion had no role in urban design". He later withdrew the remark.

"We have heard what the public think and to ignore them on this matter means we are not doing our job," said Mr Simpson.

Tamaki Community Board chairwoman Kate Sutton said the exciting things about world-class cities were their points of difference, not their uniformity.

Community board representatives addressed the meeting but did not vote.