Living Streets Aotearoa awarded $1,500 to improve Karaka Bay track access

Living Streets Aotearoa has received $1,500 to assist with the design and installation of signs to mark public access on a little-known track from Nakora Road to Karaka Bay Road in Wellington.

The funds were made available through the New Zealand Walking Access Commission’s Enhanced Access Fund, which supports projects designed to obtain certain and enduring access, such as negotiations to secure access agreements, legal or survey costs of obtaining access, or the cost of obtaining Resource Management Act consents and signage.

New Zealand Walking Access Commission chief executive Eric Pyle said the new signs would make it easier for walkers to locate and follow the track, which follows an unformed legal road currently maintained by volunteers.

“At the moment, the track is used mostly by a few locals, for walking and to exercise their dogs. Signage will mean more walkers using this track, and others which it joins up with.”

Living Streets Aotearoa is New Zealand's primary advocacy organisation for people on foot.

It evolved from Walk Wellington, a voluntary group set up in 1998 by a group of Wellingtonians with an interest in the rights of pedestrians and the benefits of walking.

“We’re pleased to be able to support this project,” Mr Pyle said. “Over the years, we’ve helped fund all sorts of initiatives, from small, individual projects to large-scale endeavours. Each one makes a difference and helps promote quality of life for our communities.”

A total of $63,000 was available across two funding rounds in 2015-2016.This was the second funding round for this period. In the previous round, eight projects across New Zealand were awarded a total of $28,660 to cover the legal costs of formalising public access routes, surveying costs and the costs of signage and information boards.

The projects approved in the first funding round of 2015-2016 include a walkway from Cargill’s Castle to Tunnel Beach in Dunedin proposed by Cargill’s Castle Trust, sections of the national Te Araroa Trail, and a Rural Women New Zealand project to establish access to Castle Downs Wetland in Southland.

ENDS

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