A need for safer pedestrian access to Wānaka’s Community Hub and the medical centre was raised last week by Wānaka social worker Heather Clay.

During the public forum at last week’s (May 2) Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) meeting, Heather requested council establish safer pedestrian crossing points on busy arterial roads near the Community Hub and the Wānaka Lakes Health Centre. 

Heather Clay is Wānaka Community Hub’s in-house social worker employed by Community Networks Wānaka.

“The Community Hub is the one-stop community welfare point in this town and it is very hard for largely older people who live [locally] to cross the road,” she told the elected members and council staff.

Heather Clay PHOTO: Wānaka Community Networks Link Upper Clutha

She said many of these residents had disabilities (such as cognitive decline and sensory impairment) and others used wheelchairs or other mobility devices, which made crossing roads challenging, especially Cardrona Valley Road, McDougall Street and Brownston Street.

The area around the Hub was “older person central” and included many residents who could not drive, she told the Wānaka App.

She said council had done well to establish a lot of pedestrian friendly “island” crossings (providing a safe refuge in the centre of the road) but these crossings did not require cars to stop.

Heather said what was needed was crossings, such as formal pedestrian (zebra) crossings with central safe refuges or traffic lights, which give the pedestrian priority over traffic, such as the pedestrian activated lights on Ballantyne Road and the zebra crossing on upper Ardmore Street.  

She said improved road crossings in Wānaka for elderly or impaired people had already been brought to council’s attention, but not necessarily on these specific roads, and she’d received feedback from council staff that funding for such measures was in the council’s 10-year plan.

“That might not be soon enough from a human rights point of view,” she told the councillors at public forum.

Yesterday (Tuesday May 7), Heather told Wānaka App she hadn’t heard from the council since the public forum.

QLDC media liaison Sam White said “there is no defined process for following up on a public forum presentation (not all speakers request further action) [but] presentations are noted and included in the meeting minutes”.

Councillor Lyal Cocks said he would raise Heather’s concerns with the Wānaka-Upper Clutha Community Board.