An arterial route through Three Parks will be named after one of developer Allan Dippie’s mentors, Sir Clifford Skeggs.

Sir Cliff Skeggs Drive will eventually connect Ballantyne Road (at the junction with Golf Course Road) to Riverbank Road, bisecting Sir Tim Wallis Drive near the new Mitre 10 MEGA.

The name was approved by the Wanaka Community Board (WCB) last week (Thursday September 17), despite some board members raising doubts about Sir Cliff’s relevance to the Wanaka community.

Allan Dippie said he bought Three Parks, which was then a deer farm known as Mount Iron Farms, from Sir Cliff, a former four-term mayor of Dunedin.

“Sir Clifford Skeggs has made significant contributions to Wanaka and the wider Otago region.” Allan said in his application to council.

Sir Cliff was behind the redevelopment of the Lake Hāwea Hotel, and is the founder of the Skeggs Foundation, which supports elite and aspiring athletes in Otago. He lives in Wanaka.

The new Sir Cliff Skeggs Drive is highlighted. IMAGE: QLDC

Allan said Sir Cliff was a personal mentor, as was Sir Tim Wallis, and it would be fitting for the two streets to intersect. “There’s a lot of parallels between these two gentlemen in life too,” he said.

Proposed road names which do not meet the council’s criteria are taken to the WCB for consideration. Sir Cliff Skeggs Drive did not meet the council’s policy that naming streets after living people should be avoided. Neither did the name clearly meet the policy of “personal name for special service”, or “historical person or event”, the council report said.

“Road names are always a bit contentious, particularly for people who are still alive,” Allan told the WCB during the meeting’s public forum.

He said the council’s naming policy, which excludes ‘double ups’, was “severely limiting the choice of names”.

“When we can’t think of anything we name them after tractors,” he said.

“I think it’s only in unusual circumstances I would approve someone living,” WCB member and Queenstown Lakes District councillor Quentin Smith said. “Sir Tim Wallis had a very clear contribution to the Upper Clutha; his [Skeggs’] contributions are primarily outside Wanaka.”

Quentin also said he didn’t accept it was difficult to find names, adding there is an “untapped supply” of Maori names in the area, “which hasn’t even begun to be explored”.

“We should encourage people to look for really locally relevant names,” he said.

Niamh Shaw said street names “add to the character of the community”, but Ed Taylor said he was happy with most street names “as long as we’re not calling it Mussolini Drive or Pol Pot Place.

“I think we should chill out about it a bit... and as long as it’s not Allan Dippie Drive.”

Despite the questions raised about the appropriateness of the name, the board unanimously passed the council’s recommendation to approve it.