Now, if you know the part of Wellington that I'm talking about here, it's the area seaside of the TSB Bank Arena and Fergs and Shed 5 and Foxglove and so on.
That whole area at the moment has beautiful concrete walkways that have been laid, lovely seating and lighting and so on.
And then there's a little barrier either side. If there's sea on the other side, there's a little barrier that comes up to a concrete barrier, maybe mid-shin for you.
Now, council officials planned to erect a fence instead - a full-length fence either side of every walkway, up to about 1.2 meters or so, lining almost the entire walkway, 3.5 km of it, at the cost of maybe as much as $30 million.
And they wanted the council - probably because they realized how this is going to go down with people - to rush through voting on it without talking to the public about it first.
For once, Wellington City Council has actually done the right thing and pumped the brakes here.
I think, to be fair to the officials, that this is coming from a good place and that this is the recommendation in a coroner's report.
A coroner has had a look at somebody who's fallen into the water, died in the drink, and said: you should put a fence up. Because there have been a few examples lately, especially young men who've got on the raz and then fallen into the water, and that has been the end of them.
But - this is gonna sound harsh - I don't think that you fence off an entire walkway because some young people sometimes have a drink and then fall in.
I don't want, just as much as you - I don't want people to die needlessly in accidents. But there is a balance to be struck here between personal responsibility and safety measures that we put up to stop stuff happening.
I think you go for an intermediate thing here. You stick up some lights, you make sure people can see where they're going in the dark, but you do not fence off the entire thing because that is overkill.
It is not normal for us to have fences between ourselves and the sea. Take Auckland, where I live at the moment.
Go for a walk under Auckland's Harbour Bridge, there are huge stretches exactly like this. No fence whatsoever. You're just walking there and there's the sea. It's a fall down, you just have to look after yourself and be careful.
Walk on piers anywhere in this country, they often do not have fences. You've just got to watch where you're going.
If you chuck up a fence, you stop people doing what they're supposed to do near the sea, which is sitting there looking at it, enjoying nature, or fishing off the walkway into the sea.
Think about what the Wellington officials were trying to do here - they were literally fencing off the sea.
When you fence off the sea, do you not think that you are going just a little bit too far?
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show HERE - where this article was sourced.
10 comments:
As you say Heather, a sensible decision on the council's part (at last!). As for those who get drunk and drown, it's just natural selection at work.
It should never have even been up for consideration. Finally wcc have demonstrated that they have the tiniest bit of common sense. Finally - after how many millions have been wasted on consultants and temporary fence hire?
Seriously these people should all be ai’d out of their jobs now so they can go and do a real days work.
That councillors even had to vote on this is an example of council out of control.
Council STAFF wanted to do this without consultation. Unelected, unrestrained, activist council staff. The same staff that go on climate marches, Palestine marches, peak oil marches.
That the coroner suggested this is of no consequence. Is this the same coroner that said an aggressor with a machete should not have been shot because "in the seconds before" he was not a threat? Despite the good previously he being a real threat.
I despair.
Personally I would have asked for a breakdown of the $7m cost of a fence.
See a council job and quadruple the cost.
A wee bit of commonsense at last.
I heard that glass balustrades without a top rail need to be toughened safety glass--very expensive--because one drunk in Auckland smashed through a standard glass balustrade years ago. Probably dozens of such examples ....
Anon @3.18 pm. The costs were a lot worse than you state. When it was first announced the cost was $30 million !!!! Then when it got to the Council table it was $14million. In recent weeks when the media showed artist's images of the proposal it came down to $7 million.
The Council staff must have a well used dart board to come up with project costs //
For rate payers it is a relief that it was finally voted down. Lets hope the new CEO and Council take a strong hold on the out of control Council staff.
Coroners often recommend excessive caution. Meanwhile we blanket restored many raised speed limits. it is not as if the wharves have no perimeter edging. Perhaps a string of fairy lights would suffice to check drunks if not currently lit. Wellington is lucky the open harbour vista is so available. In Auckland have to pass much building clutter (including a plastic state house with a ludicrous giant Capt Cook inside). It is a long tedious rudge especially if unsteady. I often wonder if our ludicrous scaffolding rules are the result of recommendations from some desk bound coroner.
Having been in many dozens of cruise ports elsewhere, I could count the number of wharf to sea fences on the thumbs of one hand.
Get real Wellington, people have to take responsibility for their own actions, drunken or not.
Asking the ratepayers to stump up for $7M just in case you have that extra sherry and stumble into the tide is unreasonable.
Given that State Highway 1 travels through the city to the airport, how come that's not fenced-off given the more imminent level of danger, injury, and death? Thank goodness common sense has prevailed - if only on this occasion. Oh, and the Council needs to do something about the standard of its recruitment, for It's clearly fallen significantly over the decades since I was employed there.
I’m devastated by this decision, if it had been approved we could’ve moved on to the more important work of fencing all the CBD streets.
Imagine at a mere $5000 a metre we could have saved thousands of pedestrians from wandering into the streets.
All those people wearing earbuds could have been protected for a mere $3,000,000,000 of ratepayers money.
It’s a sad day for Wellington š¢
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