Market an accident waiting to happen say police

 

Increasing concerns about the traffic and pedestrian safety associated with the Saturday morning Mangawhai Village Market has led to calls for more public parking but also for its relocation to another venue.

Local police have grave concerns about the Saturday morning traffic and say the market should relocate because it is only a matter of time before a pedestrian is knocked down and injured.

The market operator’s response is that the market is not moving and that the council was responsible for provid-ing more parking which would solve the traffic is-sue.

According to Mangawhai’s Senior Consta-ble, Graham Gough, the market now posed an “unnecessary risk to the pedestrian public”, had outgrown its current location, and the police would like to see it move to another venue.

Mr Gough, who has been involved in discussions with Kaipara District Council (KDC), and market operator Marita Draper of the Kaiwaka Cheese Company, says the traffic congestion and pedestrian visibility associated with long weekends and holiday periods “was an accident waiting to happen.”

No power for council
 His concerns are shared by the KDC, but it has no power to call for a Resource Consent. It could only assist and sug-gest to the market operator improvements that would assist traffic flow and pedestrian safety.

“We have talked to the operator and they are keen to stay where they are,” says Jill McPher-son, KDC CEO. “So we have made a number of suggestions on how to make the market safer.

The issue of parking and pedestrian safety arose recently when the council issued parking infringement notices to market patrons who were angle parking adjacent to the market on the corner of Insley St and Moir St. These notices were lat-er withdrawn when the council discovered it had no regulatory power to control parking on verg-es.

Despite this, Mrs Draper said the market would not be moving and any traffic issues were the fault of the KDC be-cause it did not provide enough parking for what was a growing communi-ty resource.

She believed traffic at the market intersection was no worse on mar-ket days, and congestion happened at the intersec-tion “whether the market was there or not.”

But she admitted there were some con-cerns about both angle parking and the general speed and flow of traffic. The Saturday morn-ing market is operated by Mrs Draper who says that it has taken 10 years to build the market to the level it is today.

She said the mar-ket provided funds that kept the Library Hall vi-able and this was a good reason to keep it in its present location.

She did admit the market was a profitable operation for her. She said she was still objec-

tive about its ongoing location.

As operator she said she paid the Library Hall $20 an hour for between four and five hours on a Saturday as well as an additional $25 for use of the grounds and $25 for the kitchen; a total of about $150 per week. Income from market us-ers ranged from $10 per stall holder to nothing for non-profit organisations. On Saturday October 11 there were 55 stalls at the market.

Danger for pedestrians 
The KDC has made a number of traffic safety suggestions to the market which included the operator providing a parking warden, distrib-uting flyers to patrons about traffic safety in the area, and encourag-ing stall holders to park parallel to the footpath in Moir St to prevent an-gle parking which could block the roadway.

The council was also looking at a pedestrian refuge area at the intersection.

Council CEO Jill McPherson agrees something needs to happen to make Saturday mornings safer for pedestrians and motorists. The traffic is-sues were of concern to the council.

The council was una-ble to call for the market to undergo a Resource Consent to continue as the current traffic issues did not breach coun-cil benchmarks which measured traffic averages over an entire year and not just at specific periods such as Saturday mornings, she said.

The market was held on land that was not owned by the council and therefore it was in a weak position to enforce any restrictions or improvements.

In the longer term she said the council would be looking at road design and would need to implement a full blown study of the design of the Village, she said.

“Right now we have very little regulatory powers to improve the current situation and we will have to set up a process to look at longer term solutions to the area,” she said.

Move meets resistance Suggestions have been made for a move of the Saturday market to a number of locations, all of which have been refuted by Mrs Draper.

A move to the Domain would conflict with weddings held there and the potential to move the market to the Man-gawhai School Hall would conflict with electoral counting at that location, she said.

“All these locations are being used from time to time,” she said.

Mrs. Draper said the council had made safety suggestions at meetings with her, but the fact that there were only “three public car spaces in the area” – two outside the Hub and one outside Ray White Real Estate offices – meant the council had to provide more long-term parking for market patrons.

“The council has been very helpful with suggestions, but the fact is the council infrastructure hasn’t kept up with the growth of Mangawhai.”

As to the suggestion of the provision of a park-ing warden, Mrs Draper said this was not feasible  as it would create liability issues for the market if the person was injured.

Senior Constable Gough says that some improvements were being made at the market to help traffic safety such as reshuffling some of the stalls to improve driver visibility. The organisers had been trying to make improvements.

“But personally I would like to see it move as Mangawhai grows,” he said.

“When it is busy the congestion poses an un-necessary risk to the public. All the activity distracts drivers’ attention and one day somebody is going to get scuttled.”

Mr Gough said he had received a number of complaints from people who had been involved in near-miss accidents.

Danger views shared
 Mr Gough’s concerns are also shared by Mr Trevor Downey who operates the AA emergency callout vehicle in the area.

“I won’t answer any call-outs at the market until after 1pm because I’ve nearly been hit twice when I’ve attended call-outs,” he says.

“It’s very dangerous around that market on a Saturday morning.”

This view is also shared by a number of local businesses that operate large vehicles. Several owners, who did not wished to be named over concerns of a backlash, said they avoided the area on Saturday mornings as it was a danger to their vehicles and feared an accident. They were unanimous in calling for the market to relocate to the Domain.

Sheila and Gary Hassall have owned the Gas station opposite the Saturday market for six years.

Sheila, who supports the market staying in its current location, says the market brings an influx of people into the village on a Saturday morning “which is good for all local businesses, especially in winter.”

On Saturdays she had noticed people kept their speed down when they were near the market.

But she agreed that Mangawhai could benefit from more pedestrian crossings, especially near the school.

But not all retailers at the Village are happy with the traffic associated with the market. Several in the shopping complex opposite Carters have posted “customer parking only” signs outside their shops threatening to tow vehicles that were not patrons.

By Peter Nicholas

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