Palmerston North City Council halves its cycling improvements budget

Palmerston North City Council has halved its budget for improvements to the city’s cycling network, despite one councillor predicting fatalities.

Councillor Pat Handcock, a former police area commander, said creating cycle lanes is imperative because roads are shared spaces.

“If we don’t push on with that work there are going to be other fatalities. And I will be right and those that vote in support of that [reduction] will be wrong. This is a critical decision that needs to be taken without consideration of all the noise that comes from the echo chamber where people only hear the sound of their own voices and their own opinions and they don’t take or value the viewpoints of other people.”

Handcock said on May 29, the day before the Long-Term Plan debate about the budget for retrofitting existing streets with cycle lanes, he’d experienced a near-miss. He had been cycling along Fitzherbert Ave towards The Square where there was no cycle lane.

A van driver thought he had the right of way, pushed towards Handcock and nearly collided with him, an action he thought was deliberate.

Councillor Vaughan Dennison, who proposed reducing the budget, said elected members did not have the social licence to keep rolling cycling network improvements out at the same pace. He referred to the unpopularity of changes in Featherston St, Pioneer Highway and College St.

“I feel like the theme has actually got a lot of negativity around it in the community.”

Dennison said the silent majority were noisy on the issue because they had “big question marks around the investment”.

Councillor Lew Findlay said the council had to cut its spending on cycling until the city and country had better income to pay for it.

“Our source of income is called the ratepayers and they have very, very clearly said to us ‘cut it back cuz’ because if we don’t some of us might not be sitting around this table at the next election. We have got to listen to our ratepayers and they are hurting.

“Some of them are cutting back on their food to pay for rates. We can cut back on a few cycle lanes for a couple of years to help them have a bit more food on the table.”

Councillor Lorna Johnson said the council needed more buy-in for cycle improvements.

Since the “planter box debacle” on Pioneer Highway she had done her shopping online as she couldn’t go to New World Pioneer without “somebody hitting me up about it”.

Mayor Grant Smith said community support for cycling had taken a beating.

“It’s not cycling that’s at fault, it’s the model we are using and how we are delivering it. We’ve got to have another look at how we are doing these things.”

Councillor Mark Arnott said there were a lot of elderly people worried about rates. He was happy to support the recommendation and any savings with rates.

Councillor Brent Barrett said the last time he checked paint did nothing to stop a vehicle. The council needed to invest in separated spaces that make it safe for people who would like to cycle but see it as too risky.

The budget reduction was supported 14 votes in favour and Barrett and Handcock against.

The council also voted to reduce its budget for new shared pathways and link improvements to a maximum of $6 million excluding inflation. This includes completing the Feilding to Palmerston North pathway at $2m per year in years 1 to 3 with the Ashhurst link to be reevaluated in year 4.

Judith Lacy has been editor of the Manawatū Guardian since December 2020. She graduated from journalism school in 2001, and this is her second role editing a community paper.