Consultation concluded

Many thanks to the residents and business owners who recently completed the survey to help us plan for a safer and more pleasant pedestrian environment in the Hilton town centre.

We received 33 responses to the survey that gave us some great information about how the proposed changes to the traffic conditions would affect local residents and businesses, what landscaping style you think is most suited to the town centre and how supportive you are of the proposed changes overall.

This is what you told us:

• 13 people told us they strongly support all changes, 13 people told us they support most changes, 5 said they support some changes but not others, and 2 said they do not support any changes.
• The proposal to prevent vehicles turning right out of Paget Street and Victor Street was the most contentious proposal, with 16 people opposed to the idea, 15 people supportive, and 2 neutral in their response. Of the 16 responses that opposed the proposal to prevent vehicles turning right out of Paget Street and Victor Street: 2 gave the reason that it was due to inconvenience, 9 said that it was because of concerns of the impact it would have on moving traffic on to adjoining streets, 2 cited both of the aforementioned reasons and 2 were concerned about the potential impact to business.
• Planting, trees and bike racks were the most preferred amenity improvements to the town centre.

You can read the report here.

In response to residents' concerns about proposed changes to the traffic conditions on Paget Street and Victor Street, existing traffic counts and speed checks of the alternative routes are currently being established. If the project is approved, we will check the traffic counts again to assess the impact of traffic on other streets, including Ethlewyn Street,Noel Street, Victor Street, Hughes Street, Paget Street, Lee Avenue, Gallop Street and Rennie Crescent. This will allow the City to assess the impact and determine if further traffic calming and budget allowances are required in future financial years.

A report will be presented to the Finance, Policy, Operations and Legislation Committee on Wednesday 8 November 2017 and council on Wednesday 22 November 2017.

We are recommending all proposals in the consultation be supported for delivery this financial year. Council will be asked to approve the changes as proposed below and acknowledge potential provision in the 2018-19 budgets for further traffic calming or other safety improvements on surrounding local roads that may be required as a result of this project (Ethlewyn Street, Noel Street, Victor Street, Hughes Street, Paget Street, Lee Avenue, Gallop Street and Rennie Crescent) following further assessments, to be applied for through the budget approval process.

You can read the report to the Finance, Policy, Operations and Legislation Committee here.

You can attend the committee or council meeting if you would like to address elected members or observe the meeting. Both meetings commence at 6.00 pm in council chambers.