Roskill Community Voice

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Better Footpath Blitz finds worrying trends

Media statement, for immediate release

“Footpath damage in the Puketāpapa area is widespread and creating real issues for those walking and wheeling around the greater Mt Roskill area,” says Julie Fairey, Roskill Community Voice candidate for the Puketapapa Local Board.

174 individual responses were logged online by the community through the Better Footpath Blitz run recently by Roskill Community Voice. Most involved cracked or broken footpaths, with many including trip hazards. There were also areas that flooded regularly becoming impassable, drain pipes running under the footpath that were broken or exposed, and areas that needed ramps or pram crossings.  All Puketāpapa suburbs had at least one issue logged.

Worrying trends in footpath damage

Trends noted from the issues logged included:

  • Footpaths, and pipes underneath them, broken by cars and heavier vehicles parked on footpaths.
  • Poorly done reinstatements to footpaths ripped up for utility works (eg installing fibre), especially laying asphalt when previously the footpath was concrete
  • Footpaths that had been patched several times over, probably needing replacement
  • Construction sites with driveways that had been pulled out, resulting in no footpath outside the property, or an insufficient footpath such as gravel, usually with trip hazards at either end
  • Tree roots lifting concrete sections of footpath resulting in trip hazards over time
  • Old staple-like bollards in walkways between streets which are too difficult for those with a stroller, bicycle, or wheelchair to get past
  • Plants growing in cracks, which exacerbate damage and slipperiness
  • A lack of response from Auckland Transport when people had raised a problem in the past

Footpath problems leading to falls, lack of access

Some troubling stories came through the Blitz’ online tool, including the following quotes from locals:

  • “…Many accidents have occurred from this slippery mouldy path. Needs a good clean as falling off bikes have caused broken hips etc”
  • “My wife tripped on this one, yesterday. Bruising, lacerations requiring stitches to face and hands.”
  • “There are problems on both sides of this street. Uneven paths, broken kerbs, trees overhanging the footpath very low that can spike your hair as you walk under them… Lumps of concrete that have been spilt on the path and never scraped off. It’s a route for our walking school bus and lots of kids and parents…”
  • “One corner has big hole in the kerb, you could break your leg. Logged this a year ago but no action…”
  • “There is a pipe or something broken and it leaks constantly onto the footpath. Because it has been happening for so long, moss and algae is growing on the footpath. It makes it VERY dangerous as it is so slippery. My daughter has slipped right over a few times.”

“To encourage people to move around our community on footpaths we need to ensure it is safe to do so, regardless of age and mobility”, says Fairey.

Next steps

“We’ve logged all 150+ of these issues with Auckland Transport and have asked them to assess each one and let us know their next steps. Some have been passed on to Auckland Council as they involved stormwater or parks. We’ll be monitoring progress and reporting back to the community through our Facebook page www.facebook.com/roskillcv,” says Fairey.

“Through many years of advocating for footpath improvements, Auckland Transport have told us that local footpaths are generally in good condition. But we know from trying to get individual problems fixed that sometimes it takes a lot of follow-up to even get dangerous trip hazards addressed. We’re hopeful by taking this collective approach, and monitoring progress, we’ll be able to see an increase in footpath maintenance not just for the issues logged but more generally,” says Fairey.

The map attached currently marks all the logged issues as red and we will update this map, hoping to get them all to green, over time.

 

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Better footpaths blitz

Have you come across broken or damaged footpaths in your neighbourhood?  Well we’ve created handy form for you to report these issues so that we can log them into the system to be fixed up.

Create your own user feedback survey

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Winning the 191 bus for Lynfield

Many years ago, when the old Auckland City was deciding about putting a new library at Lynfield or Blockhouse Bay, a bus route connecting Lynfield to the west was promised. After some advocacy it looked like this would finally be delivered as part of the New (Bus) Network Auckland Transport was rolling out, but they changed their minds and took it off the map again. We worked with Lynfield locals, and others keen to use such a service, and managed to win the new 191, which started in February 2019 as an hourly service.

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The Great Puketapapa Bus Survey 2018

The Great Puketapapa Bus Survey 2018

After the New (Bus) Network was rolled out in the central Auckland area by Auckland Transport, we were hearing a lot of concerns about how it was working. So we surveyed the local area and produced this report summarising the around 300 responses. It includes recommendations for Auckland Transport to consider, some of which are site-specific improvements and others are changes people would like to see to frequencies and so on.

On the whole people liked the increased frequencies, the simplicity of the network, and double decker buses. Concerns remained, after a few months of operation, about several changes in particular the loss of two express routes (267x and 258x) and the 299 link to Newmarket.

At the moment we are awaiting Auckland Transport’s response to the recommendations and report.

We’re also considering making the survey an annual campaign, so that we can see how things are improving (or not!)

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Safer Three Kings: No More Bottle Stores

In 2018 we helped the Three Kings community to stop a new off-licence alcohol store from opening in their neighbourhood, and we won!

The campaign included several public meetings, encouraging and gathering submissions opposing the new store for the liquor licence process, an online petition signed by over 300 locals with several hundred more paper signatures, and working with Michael Wood, MP for Mt Roskill, and the Puketapapa Local Board.

The application for a new off-licence (bottle store) at 509 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings, was WITHDRAWN by the applicant,because of the large number of community objections – well done everyone for speaking up and making sure Super Liquor and the applying business owner knew Three Kings wasn’t ok with another bottle store in our community.

This is a huge win, thank you so much for your support!

Petition background
Alcohol Healthwatch estimates alcohol-related harm in New Zealand costs $14.5m each day. The brunt is disproportionately on youth, Maori and Pasifika in our communities, and there is a link between high density of off-licences and the heavier drinking patterns that result in much of the harm. Harm includes the health of the drinker themselves, such as increased rates of cancer and fetal alcohol syndrome, as well as harm to others, with alcohol playing a direct or indirect role in many fire fatalities, drownings, suicide and self-inflicted harm deaths, and the growing road toll.

43% of all alcohol is sold from off-licences, like the one proposed. This Super Liquor would be a large store, the size of the old bed shop, likely focused on selling bulk amounts of alcohol at low prices. It would increase the amount of alcohol in our community when we need to limit supply, and in particular reduce sales from off-licences where the liquor is then consumed in unsupervised circumstances (in contrast with on-licences).

Three Kings already has a large number of off-licences and problems with anti-social behaviour as a result of alcohol abuse.

There have been repeated incidents of violence and abuse in the carpark across the road from the proposed site, at 546 Mt Albert Rd, with alcohol playing a role. Several nearby shops, including existing bottle shops, have been violently robbed in particular the Liquor Legends on Duke St and the Crown Superette on Melrose Rd.

Local schools and parks end up vandalised and littered with broken glass, as people drink alcohol purchased at bottle shops in public despite liquor bans. Resources of both council and schools have to be used to clean up the mess, when some of it could be avoided by reducing the sale of alcohol in the area.

There are a number of local sites of cultural importance where anti-social behaviour fueled by alcohol would be inappropriate, including places of worship such as the almost adjacent Three Kings Congregational Church, and Ranfurly Retirement Village which is a war memorial to the Boer War and thus a place of remembrance as well as home to some of our more vulnerable older people.

Finally, the District Licensing Committee process allows people to make submissions to object to the application, and this petition is an important opportunity for those who can’t make a submission to still be able to show their opposition. It is possible there will also be a hearing on this application, particularly if the petition is signed by a lot of locals, which will provide another opportunity for the local community to have a say.