Cambridge residents in the proposed third bridge blue blob zone forced Waipā District Council into significant changes last week while a strident group did themselves no favours by verbally threatening elected officials and staff.
In a tumultuous two days – starting hours before a Cambridge Community Board meeting and ending with the abandonment of a drop-in session at Bridges Church – the council unreservedly apologised for its communications and back-tracked on consultation plans.
The moment Waipa community services manager Brad Ward called a stop to the public drop-in session at the Bridges Church as the pressure went on Transport manager Bryan Hudson to his left. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Consultation on its preferred proposal was to have closed tomorrow (Friday) but has now been extended until April 26. It has opened consultation up to the other options.
It is back to the drawing board on the site for a third bridge, but district councillor Philip Coles is unlikely to play any part as an elected member around the debating table following questions about his impartiality.
Mayor Susan O’Regan and Transport manager Bryan Hudson – in the absence of more senior staff whose absences were noted – copped the vitriol at the drop in while councillors Clare St Pierre, Mike Pettit, Mike Montgomerie, community board chair Jo Davies-Colley and deputy mayor Liz Stolwyk watched on from the side.
Coles was at the back of the room with groups of people who were angrily questioning the council’s actions when Community Services manager Brad Ward called the session to an end.
Shocked and puzzled participants at the Cambridge Connections drop in meeting
The News was told O’Regan had been verbally threatened away from the public eye. Accusations and name calling were thrown at her and Hudson when they spoke.
O’Regan and Stolwyk hastily left the meeting when discussion got heated.
The council released its “preferred option” for Cambridge Connections to the community on February 29. It resulted in a hail-storm of criticism.
A map showed traffic lights dotted around the town, safety humps and streetscape improvements and, controversially, a new bridge from the Town Belt in Leamington across the river to Cambridge’s south-western suburb. That area was depicted by a blue blob.
Owners and residents under the blue blob were shocked, spokesperson Jared Milbank told the community board in its open forum last week. Most learned of the plans from The News and in a desperate search for answers, spoke to their neighbours and read flyers, he said.
“No one has heard from the council. People are shocked: they are shocked they have not been consulted.
“There is a message consultation will come later, but there is already a map affecting our properties, and people think this plan is already fixed.
“People are struggling to understand why those that want to drive through us rather than around us have been consulted, and why their wanting to is sufficient reason to allow indefinite noise and traffic,” he said.
Deputy mayor Liz Stolwyk at the Cambridge Connections drop in meeting
The community board resolved to ask council for an extension of the consultation period and for all scenarios to be considered – and Coles made his feelings clear which may have ruled him out of future council decisions.
“If the recommendation says go for Option C, with the information I’ve got I will not be able to support part of it anyway,” he said.
“If we put this (the bridge) in the wrong place it’s going to screw up this place that my family have called home for 165 years…”
He said he needed “a lot of convincing” the council’s recommendations were right.
However, his colleague Mike Montgomerie spelled out why he did not take part in the discussion and vote, saying it was nothing sinister but a “serious dedication to doing my job”.
“It’s so when we are deciding at council, I am still an active decision maker.
“If I’ve expressed strong prejudice I actively technically can’t participate at the end of the day.”
See: It was wrong to be all at C
See: Where to from here
See: Letters to the editor pages 2, 10 and 11 – March 28, 2024 edition
- The News would like to clarify its description of the blue blob. Streets either partially or completely under the blue blob to the west of Dick Street and south of Hamilton Road (not included underneath it) are Duke, Bryce, Queen, Grey, Mackenzie Place, Dallinger and Wallace courts and Haworth Ave.
Cambridge Connections drop in meeting once most of the public had left. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
After the storm …… plenty of opportunity to look at the options. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
