In search of the right place

OPINION: A council will always find itself jammed between a rock and a hard place when it makes a decision on closing roads for a community event, writes The Southland Times in an editorial.

It will please the people involved in the event for the obvious safety reasons. Sometimes, it will annoy residents because of the inconvenience. Oftentimes, it will brass off the businesses affected, which will claim loss of trade along with the inconvenience to customers and the like.

But to continually kowtow to commercial interests in a town runs the risk of a council leading a dull, lifeless community devoid of festivals and have-a-go events.

The Wanaka Community Board is trying to extricate itself from just such a tricky position over the week-long Challenge Wanaka triathlon festival hosted in the town last month. The trouble came from a fair section of the central business area being closed to traffic for part of the Friday and most of the Saturday.

It's hard to see how business would suffer when the event brought thousands of people to the town. The community board, though, has to accept the word of the retailers when they say they suffered a downturn in trade.

One retailer quoted at the time said he was all for the event but was unhappy with the streets being closed. Alternative venues had been suggested after similar criticism in 2009, but the community board had ignored these.

The venue was discussed again on Friday at a debrief, and it seems from initial comments by board chairman Lyall Cocks that changes are likely for 2011.

There is no doubting the benefits of starting the swim-bike-run races on the lakefront in the centre of town and keeping the transition sections on the central Pembroke Park, particularly for the organisers and spectators. However, event director Victoria Murray Orr seems content to consider other routes through the town.

This looks to be a happy compromise in which the town will retain the event, with its media profile and increased visitor numbers, while keeping the main-street merchants on side. It is a shame when community involvement events such as the Challenge cause disputes. They are designed to get people together, not to split them.

Something similar happened in Invercargill at the weekend with the Surf to City fun run. Safety considerations mean the main route from Oreti Beach to Queens Park is shut during the annual event, causing traffic delays and a lengthy detour into the city for Otatara residents. Seldom does anyone complain, though – the strong sense of community from the event, and just getting so many families out enjoying a healthy event, overpowers any disruption.

Look also at the annual Santa Parade. Retailers say they might as well close during the parade, but they smile about trade beforehand and the general benefits for the community.

One area the city council could do more to disrupt traffic is the one-way section of Esk St. Our elected councillors have long given their ear to Esk St property owners and retailers, who are concerned that a mall would reduce foot traffic to their premises. It's that lazy-Southlanders-have-to-park-outside argument.

Designating a central traffic-free space would finally give us a people-friendly heart to the city. Imagine those buskers on Friday performing in the middle of a mall rather than in that soulless concrete space called Wachner Place.

A few years back, a weekend market in the street attracted a huge crowd but didn't go down well with some retailers. It has not been repeated. With the number of civic delegations taking themselves off to foreign cities of late, you'd think at least one councillor would come back preaching the benefits of a traffic-free community space. We live in hope.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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