Mayor, MPthrow support behind traffic lane battle

Tāhunanui community advocates protesting against an extra traffic lane through their community have won the support of their local MP and mayor.

Nelson MP Rachel Boyack and Mayor Rachel Reese met Tāhunanui advocates yesterday to back their ongoing campaign against transport agency Waka Kotahi’s plan to reinstate a permanent southbound merging lane at the busy intersection of Tāhunanui Drive (State Highway 6) and Bisley Ave.

Reese said she had been consistently hearing the same concerns in her meetings with the community.

‘‘Implementing this lane is not the right move for the community,’’ she said. Tāhunanui leaders and businesses say the lane would cause access and safety problems particularly for cyclists and pedestrians.

Several other councillors had raised concerns when the plan was put to the Nelson City Council in October last year.

In October, Waka Kotahi representatives said removing any part of the proposed changes would weaken the entire plan.

However, Boyack said yesterday that she was not convinced that removing the proposed priority lane at Tāhunanui would undermine other aspects of the Nelson Future Access Plan, which she said overall was ‘‘excellent’’.

In her talks with the community, only two individuals had shown any support for the extra lane.

‘‘I don’t think the southbound lane is needed to achieve what we want to do through the Nelson Future Access Plan,’’ Boyack said.

Reese and Boyack said there had been a major shift in the community’s appetite for active transport options like cycling, ebikes and scooters, and for public transport improvements and park-and-ride options, which were on the books for Nelson’s future transport infrastructure. They said focus should go towards these steps.

Tāhunanui resident and Tāhunanui Business and Citizens Association board member Jac Stevenson said it was good to feel heard, but she was ‘‘dubious’’ about Waka Kotahi’s response.

She said support for the community had come not just from locals, but from the wider city and nationally from people or organisations who used the road – including local taxi drivers, cycling group Bicycle Nelson Bays, transport organisation Transporting New Zealand, the AA and more.

‘‘If you’ve got every road user saying it shouldn’t be reinstated, why should we listen to someone from Wellington saying it should?

‘‘For the Road to Zero strategy, they should be putting people first.’’

Stevenson said she would be presenting to the council about the issue at its meeting next Thursday, where Reese promised she would try to get support from the rest of the council to formally inform Waka Kotahi that the extra lane was not supported.