Canterbury Councillor Claims 'More Road Cones Here' Than Europe

Thursday, 7 August 2025, 6:27 pm
Article: Jonathan Leask - Local Democracy Reporter

Councillor Richard Wilson says he saw more road cones on his 100km drive home from Christchurch Airport than he did while travelling in Europe for a few weeks.

“There were more road cones there than there were in the rest of the world. “I'm not joking, it's ridiculous," the Hinds-based Ashburton councillor said. 

Returning from his “long-awaited OE” to news that the Government was cracking down even further on road cones, Wilson asked at a July 30 council briefing if staff had noticed any difference around temporary traffic management. 

Roading manager Mark Chamberlain said he hadn’t noticed any change on the state highway network, which is under NZTA jurisdiction. 

“Most of the stuff on the local network isn't quite to the same extreme. 

“Sometimes you need to have lots of cones. It's not necessarily cones, it's more where they put and how they're put in.” 

Infrastructure and open spaces general manager Neil McCann told LDR that the council has received seven “roadworks CRM complaints” this year, three of which were related to signs or cones being left behind. 

There are also phone calls, with "about one per month". 

He said safe and appropriate traffic management is discussed with contractors almost daily. 

“The use of cones is one part of that discussion.” 

The committee meeting discussion prompted Mayor Neil Brown to ask about his own plan to crackdown on cone overuse. 

Brown asked for the work on the details of his “abandoned road cone fee”, which was added to the council fees and charges on July 1, to get underway. 

Transport Minister Chris Bishop announced at the end of July that funding could be cut for councils with over-the-top traffic management. 

He said the government funds local council transport projects to the tune of over $1 billion per year through the National Land Transport Fund, which is administered by NZTA. 

“In future, the NZTA Board will require councils to apply the more pragmatic New Zealand guide to temporary traffic management to their local roadworks contracts before approving government funding for those projects. 

“Since we’ve formed Government, the percentage of project costs spent on temporary traffic management has reduced from 15.8% of maintenance costs down to 8.8%, and from 6.0% of the cost of capital projects, down to just 2.3%.” 

By December 20, councils will need to have a plan in place for applying the New Zealand guide to temporary traffic management to their contracts. 

Then they must apply it to all new contracts by July 1, 2026, and it must be incorporated into all existing contracts by July 1, 2027.

– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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