30 August 2012

Partnership for Christchurch Coastal Pathway Project

Work on a master plan and feasibility study for the proposed six-kilometre Christchurch Coastal Pathway is about to get underway thanks to a just announced Christchurch City Council and Christchurch Coastal Pathway Group (CPG) community partnership.

Mayor Bob Parker says, “Council in seeking an appropriate way to support this project has undertaken to provide initial funding and project management. The project budget for this stage is $50,000 which has already been allocated for this purpose in the Annual Plan.

“A desire to see a recreational asset that speaks to the spirit of Christchurch come to fruition and to ensure CPG can meet funding application deadlines meant the project planning had to get underway now. These applications could net a third of the eventual project costs.

“The pathway will cater for children, pedestrians, cyclists, skateboarders and people using scooters and wheelchairs and is planned to connect Ferrymead to Mt Pleasant and on through Redcliffs, finishing at the end of Scarborough Beach in Sumner”, says Mr Parker.

Hagley/Ferrymead Community Board Chairperson Bob Todd welcomed news of the partnership announcement and says, “this project has wide community support and has been identified by the Board as its priority capital project because of its significance to the community and to recovery in the area, and I congratulate Council and the Pathways Group on their initiative.”

The project will not be dissimilar to the New Plymouth, Napier, and Wellington pathways which stretch along their coastal edges. The award winning six-kilometre pathway in New Plymouth averages over 40,000 users a month.

“It is most heartening following the unprecedented level of public support across the Port Hills and Christchurch communities with over 1,400 locals lodging submissions to Council we now have this community partnership in place,” say Mel Slemint and Michael Sleigh, Committee Members for the Pathway Group.

“We are sure the Christchurch Coastal Pathway will make the most of our dramatic and varied coastline, making it accessible to locals and visitors, protecting and enhancing the habitat for wildlife and connecting the earthquake-damaged communities along its route.”

The Council, working with the CPG, will commission award-winning landscape architects Wraight Associates, who will lead a multi-disciplinary team to undertake the first stage of the design and master plan work. This will include outlining how future construction could be integrated with SCIRT repair works to the area and how to minimise both costs and disturbance.

Extensive consultation with the wider community and stakeholders including Ngai Tahu, the Avon-Heathcote Estuary Ihutai Trust, the Christchurch Estuary Association, the local yacht clubs and residents will be undertaken. The first formal consultation meetings will start in late September and be followed by further meetings in October.

For more information contact: www.christchurchcoastalpathway.org.nz

ENDS

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