Courtenay Park back to council
27/09/2006 12:00:00 a.m.
A split on council has put the Courtenay Place/Taranaki Street park development back on the agenda.
A majority on council last week signed up to a Revocation Requisition, which has forced council to reconsider the proposal. The park has drawn heavy criticism from local businesses concerned at the loss of parking and a slip road, which jets off Courtenay Place and feeds into Taranaki Street.
Ian McKinnon and John Morrison composed the Revocation Requisition to have the project re-heard. It nearly killed the park when a majority signed up, but councillor Leonie Gill later withdrew her signature.
The funding for the development was approved in 2004. When councillors were asked to comment on the design of the development earlier this year, McKinnon expressed concerns about the loss of the slip road.
"My concern was driven by traffic management. It seemed to me that having three lanes of traffic merge onto Taranaki Street will lead to enormous congestion, whereas the slip road gives a little relief to that," he says.
John Morrison is more concerned about how the loss of car parks will affect those visiting the health specialists located on the corner of Courtenay Place and Taranaki Street.
Nine of the 15 car parks in the slip road will be relocated into an access lane that turns left onto Taranaki Street, and the former men’s toilets will be developed into a wine/cocktail bar.
"You could say the sick, the elderly and incapacitated will give way to a wine bar and a urinal," Morrison says. "I was a candidate when I had my heart operation. I was going in for blood tests every three or four days. I wasn’t the fittest guy round so my wife dropped me literally at the door. It will be very difficult for sick, elderly and incapacitated people without the slip road."
Councillors Rob Goulden, Jack Ruben, Helene Ritche, Haley Wain and Brian Pepperell, also signed the requisition.
Gill withdrew her signature after receiving a call from Mayor Kerry Prendergast. Gill says she signed assuming eight signatures meant the development would be re-debated, but in actual fact only five signatures were needed to get it put back on the agenda. Eight signatures could kill it altogether.
The Courtenay Place development will be re-considered by council on September 27.
