14 March 2008

To: Chief Reporter

From: Nalinesh Arun, CCC Communications Team

CHRISTCHURCH CITY COUNCIL MEDIA RELEASE

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Special public consultation for allowing trams in City Mall

The Christchurch City Council is initiating a public consultation to provide for trams in the City Mall as it gears up for a wider consultation to extend the tramway in central city.

The Council, in its Annual Plan, allocated $550,000 to install tram rails along with the concrete base that is being constructed as part of the service lane of the City Mall upgrade project.

A Special Consultative Procedure (SCP) begins on Monday and will call for submissions to be made on the proposal to amend the Special Order that currently designates the Mall for pedestrians and service vehicles only. The SCP entails wide-ranging consultation, submissions gathering and a public hearing on the issue.

"The only change to the Special Order being proposed is to add "trams" in the section that allows for the types of vehicles that can pass through the Mall," says Dave Hinman, Principal Adviser for the Council on Central City Projects.

"This is not a general consultation about whether other traffic should be allowed into the Mall - it is specifically asking the question about the tram," says Mr Hinman.

He says the SCP is the first part of the wider consultation the Council will undertake to determine the extended tram route. If the SCP is agreed to, it will allow the Council to proceed with the laying of tracks as part of the concrete base construction, as well as retrofit that part of High Street where the base is already laid (as an integral part of the City Mall upgrade).

Following a lengthy study on the proposal to extend the tramway, a safety audit on the tram extension has been completed and has confirmed that all the safety issues have been addressed. The consultation on the route of the extension will go out to the public in early April.

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