Residents fight permanent cycleways

A plan to criss-cross the North Shore with cycleways has struck stiff resistance from some residents who refuse to give up parking spaces outside their homes to cyclists.

Last night residents forced the Takapuna Community Board to rescind its May decision to support a cycling loop around Lake Pupuke that included the busy Kitchener and Hurstmere Rds.

Instead, the board agreed to support a petition with 350 signatures which opposed a large reduction of street parking to create about 1.5km of cycleways on one or both sides of these roads.

In presenting the petition, residents John Algie and Tim Turner said they were both cyclists and expected there were risks to their safety in some parts of the city.

But this plan was expecting a lot of residents to take a loss of amenities for the sake of a few.

About 84 parking spaces out of 125 would be lost along the Milford-Takapuna arterial roads but people in a dozen side roads would also be affected.

Parking was needed for summer visitors to the beaches and events at Lake Pupuke and for parking of boat trailers.

Mr Algie said residents had hired their own traffic planning consultant who had found the proposals posed serious road safety issues.

In 80 hours of research, residents had shown the council had based its support for cycleways on inaccurate information.

Board chairman Wayne Tisdall said the board would drop its support for one of two options - a cycleway along only the western side of the roads, with a bus lane clearway for morning commuter cyclists to use.

Mayor George Wood said the council would extend to the end of the month the period of public consultation which began last January when 1200 brochures were delivered to get residents' views.

Mr Wood said part of this would be a public meeting about the plan at the Takapuna Memorial Hall next Tuesday at 7pm.

He said this was done because a lot of people said they did not get the council's flyer outlining the cycleway options and the reasons for them.

The council had hired a distribution company to deliver the flyers but Mr Wood said he did not think that "No Junk Mail" stickers on letterboxes was the reason for many residents not receiving them.

He said the council had received "a major fright" when it realised that the Land Transport Act made cycleways permanent and unavailable for parking at any time.

"It's become a real nightmare as far as how we accommodate the interests of the various parties."

Mr Wood said the council approved a cycleway strategy with the aim of encouraging cycling to help people move more easily across the city.

"That's okay at a higher level, but once you got to putting these cycleways in then people woke up to what it all meant and that's when things started falling apart."

From the 1200 brochures, the council received 115 responses.

However, only 30 per cent were from people who lived on Hurstmere Rd or Kitchener Rd.

The council said 67 per cent of these supported cycle lanes while 39 per cent said street parking was very important.

Council officers concluded a "very positive" community response for the project.