Plane trees safe as redesign signed off

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A redesign of a section of Taupo Quay has been signed off by the Wanganui District Council.

The council's plans to reshape the Quay, from Market Pl to Victoria Ave, hit a snag when public protest and a petition stopped the planned removal of a number of aged London plane trees from the Quay.

The original concept tagged a number of trees for removal, mainly to allow laying of new underground power cables and other services.

Alternatives were considered in November last year but were said to compromise the council's long-term objectives for the Quay, especially in relation to renewing underground services.

After being petitioned, the council reneged and in March decided to have the project redesigned to retain the plane trees. Rui Leitao, council's senior roading engineer, told last week's council meeting that the options looked to keep the redesign as close to the original streetscape plan as possible.

As well as involving council engineers, the final design review team also included local architect Bruce Dickson.

Mr Leitao said the redesign looked at some specific areas including retaining all the trees, ensuring pedestrian flow and safety around those trees, minimising the impact on parking on that section of Taupo Quay, and providing a "balanced" streetscape. To minimise the hazard of tree roots deforming the footpaths, garden areas will be created around the trees from the i-Site corner toward Victoria Ave.

He said while the redesign has tried to be as close to the original as possible, some compromises had been made. "It does not address all the renewal and improvement issues with underground utilities and reduces the number of carparks by four."

He said it also meant relocating the bus stop outside the Tram Shed, which means that buses on the Drews Ave route will now have to travel an extra 330m each trip, heading along Ridgway St, into Market Pl and then on to the Quay.

The redesign got the vote of councillors Helen Craig, Martin Visser, Jack Bullock, Charlie Anderson, Jenny Duncan and Hamish McDouall. Councillors Philippa Baker-Hogan, Ray Stevens and Rob Vinsen voted against it.