CCC (Christchurch City Council)

The Council are consulting over proposals to extend the Railway cyclepath from Northcote Rd  to Tuckers Rd, as part of a future extension to Main North Road.  A new signalised crossing at Northcote Road is part of the project.

The CCC consultation leader will be holding site meetings to discuss the project at the following times:

• Monday 8 December 12.15 to 12.45 p.m. beside the Tuckers Road railway crossing.

• Tuesday 9 December 8.30 to 9.15 a.m. beside the Northcote Road railway crossing.

• Tuesday 9 December 4.45 to 5.30 p.m. beside the Northcote Road railway crossing.

The project is great news, particularly as the Northcote Rd crossing has posed a significant access constraint for both cyclists and pedestrians over the years.

The consultation brochure showing the draft design for this proposed facility is attached below.

The Council proposes to:

• close Oxford Tce (The
  Strip) from Lichfield Street to Hereford Street every Thursday, Friday
  and Saturday night from 7pm till 7am the following morning.

• permanently remove the left turn from Oxford Tce (west ie coming from
  the hospital end), to Oxford Tce (The Strip) at the intersection with
  Durham Street South / Lichfield Street.

See discussion and draft submission at: http://spokes.org.nz/node/573

The attached submission was lodged on 28 October, 2008

CCC are consulting on improvements to urban design in Christchurch.  These will probably be implemented through the City Plan.  Cycling and walking "friendlyness" and accessibility are an important part of good urban design - and something that is currently lacking in many parts of the central city and suburban malls. 

As part of the urban design improvement project a questionaire is available online at:

http://www.ccc.govt.nz/CityPlan/SpecialProjects/CentralCityB2UrbanDesign...

Please consider taking part in this project and filling out the questionaire, as this feedback will play an important part in the overall project.  

Spokes will also consider a formal submission on the Issues and Options report that form part of the project.  This is available at:

http://www.ccc.govt.nz/CityPlan/SpecialProjects/CentralCityB2UrbanDesign...

The South-West Area Plan (SWAP) is a strategic plan for managing urban growth and long-term development in the area between, and including, the established suburbs of Hornby, Hoon Hay and Halswell.

The study area comprises the upper catchments of the Heathcote and Halswell Rivers, is bounded to the north by Blenheim Road/Main South Road, in the east by Lyttelton Street, the Port Hills to the south, and Marshes Road (the boundary with Selwyn District) to the west. The area has been identified as a focus for future urban expansion in the Urban Development Strategy.

Issues associated with the SWAP that are likely to be of interest to Spokes include overall urban design and planning, provision for cycleways within new and existing development areas, and linkages between these areas and other parts of the city and public transport provisions. A summary of the SWAP is available at:

http://www.ccc.govt.nz/AreaPlans/SouthWest/files/SWAPSummaryDocument.pdf

Consultation on the SWAP ended on Friday 10 October. A late submission was lodged on Mon 13 with CCC agreement (see Attachments below).

Spokes Core held a group strategy meeting in August and one of the priorities identified by participants was the need to identify specific cycling improvement projects to input into Council processes such as the LTCCP.

A list of cycling improvement projects has been developed by Spokes and sent to Council (see below).  A meeting to discuss these ideas and the "aspirational projects" for active transport that have been proposed by by council staff was held at the Council on Thurs 18 September.  A lot of great projects that would benefit cycling in Christchurch have been proposed by staff, but time will tell if these will get through Councils budgeting process and into the LTCCP.

The submission from Spokes (including specific projects we have identified) and accompanying maps are attached below.