Canterbury Charity Hospital considers legal action over 'inferior' cycleway design

The Team Reporter from The Press

From reporter Tina Law:

The Canterbury Charity Hospital is considering launching a judicial review against the city council over its decision to push ahead with an “unsafe and inferior” cycleway.

The Christchurch City Council last week approved the final design for the $22.6 million, 4.5-kilometre Wheels to Wings cycleway on Harewood Rd, following 19 months of consultation and more than 70 design changes.

The cycleway passes the hospital’s front gate and its bosses first raised concerns about its design early last year.

The charity hospital wants the council to go ahead with an alternative community-led design, which was considered by the council but eventually dismissed because it had “safety concerns that could not be resolved”.

The council voted 11 to 6 in favour of pushing ahead with the staff-recommended design.

Hospital chairman Phil Bagshaw and executive officer Carl Shaw said in a statement, they were dismayed at the council’s decision to accept an “inferior version” of the cycleway.

They said the hospital trust had grave concerns for the safety of its patients and staff and believed the community had been ignored.

A statement issued by the trust’s lawyer, Jamie Robinson of Duncan Cotterill, said the hospital believed the community option was safer and less costly than what the councillors approved.

She said the fact the community proposal was not given fuller consideration by the council had resulted in the hospital seeking legal advice on its options to judicially review the decision.

“The Canterbury Charity Hospital is frustrated by the decision of the councillors, and specifically that the alternative option strongly supported by the community was not given more consideration.”

Bagshaw and Shaw would not comment on how the hospital would pay for legal action or when a firm decision would be made.

They directed all inquiries to Robinson, who did not answer those questions.

City council chief executive Dawn Baxendale is on the charity hospital trust board, which presumably would make the final decision over legal action.

Bagshaw and Shaw said in a statement the council did not carry out an independent safety audit on the community design, which was created by three highly experienced engineers with more than 100 years of experience between them.

Council head of transport Lynette Ellis said staff had worked with the hospital throughout the development of the cycleway, most recently in the last two months.

She said staff were working to clarify their concerns and were confident that those could be mostly resolved through a design solution.

At last week’s council meeting, during some intense questioning from councillors, Ellis went to great pains to explain staff had seriously considered the alternative design but they could not make it work no matter how hard they tried.

Ellis said road safety audits did not provide a comparison between different options, so it went with an independent design review instead.

The review was undertaken by Chartered Professional Engineers, who were recognised in the field of road safety and design for active modes of transport, she said.

The council-approved design would see Harewood Rd reduced from four vehicle lanes to two lanes to make way for one-way cycle lanes on both sides of the road between Nunweek Boulevard and Greers Rd.

At Nunweek Park the cycleway will become two-way on the south side of Harewood Rd towards Russley Rd.

From Greers Rd towards the railway line in Papanui, the cycleway will be two-way on the north side apart from a small section outside Mitre 10 where it will become one-way on both sides of the road.

The community plan (pictured) involved a two-way cycleway on the south side of the Harewood Rd median strip.