Ask Phoebe: Planting flowers on roadside verge isn't allowed - it's council property

Out of bounds: Gardens planted on the roadside berm are illegal. Photo / Natalie Slade

Is it legal to garden the strip of grass between the footpath and the kerb? Is it council property? It seems such a waste to just leave it as a rather tatty lawn, but no one ever seems to use it.
-Brian Jones, Westmere.

No, it is not legal. Chris Horan, manager of service requests in the regulatory planning department for Auckland City Environments, says planting the grass berm, or verge, is prohibited.

The berm is owned by the council (it's part of the legal road) and the Public Places bylaw prohibits anyone from planting or in any way damaging it.

Mr Horan understands this may be seen to be boring and just having grass may not be the most effective use of the land, but says that the road is public, rather than private, property.

The council's rationale for keeping the berm in grass is that allowing gardens to be developed could lead to all sorts of added structures, such as trellises, stakes etc, and if these weren't maintained properly they could become hazards for pedestrians, cyclists, joggers and the like. Other users of footpaths, such as those who are visually impaired or who use mobility scooters, could also be affected, so it's a safety issue, at bottom.

I am a regular user of the fantastic NZ Transport Agency traffic flow web page for the Auckland motorways, trafficnz.info/googlemaps/#traffic. But it would be much more useful if it covered every section of motorway in Auckland. Will this happen?
-Hazel Walton, Auckland.

Staff at the Transport Agency blushed modestly at your description of their website, which is updated regularly by the good people at the Traffic Operations Centre just across the Harbour Bridge in the old Auckland Harbour Bridge Authority building. They are soon to move to Takapuna.

The motorway information comes from a combination of automatic sensors and monitoring of the actual road conditions. While sensors are in place on most of the Northern, Southern and Northwestern Motorways, there is no coverage yet of the Southwestern Motorway because of continuing construction near Mangere Bridge.

When this is finished later in the year, this motorway will be included in the network traffic updates. The agency also plans to extend its coverage over the next few months, to give a more complete picture of conditions.

Please can you explain why preparatory work for the Hauraki Corner to Esmonde Rd upgrade was finished before Christmas but the upgrade itself isn't due to be done until mid 2010?
-Richard Everitt, Devonport.

Fulton Hogan finished the pre-roading works ahead of schedule. Phone and power companies have been installing equipment and cables, on track to be completed this month.

The council has tendered the contract for the roadworks component of the project and the contract is due to be awarded next month.

* Last year we asked for submissions on Auckland's worst roads and drew a shortlist of 10, based on physical condition and difficulties faced by drivers. We gave the relevant councils your nominations, and they responded. We're now asking you to do it again. Email your nominations to askphoebe@nzherald.co.nz before the end of this week. We'll pick the 10 worst and try to get something done about them.