Shining road reports across the way from Churton
By Jamie Melbourne-Hayward
Resource consent has been approved for the long-awaited Westchester Drive Extension linking Churton Park to state highway one, and work is set to begin next year. If Granada village?s highway link is anything to go by, the community should be looking forward to work getting underway. Granada Village Community Association president Bruce Patterson says the road linking Grenada Village to the Porirua-Wellington motorway has received ?no complaints?. The 900-metre link road took a year to complete and now saves motorists' time and travel costs. ?As far as we have seen it has been excellent. ?There were pro?s and con?s to the road, people thought it would create additional traffic, but that hasn?t seemed to be a problem,? says Mr Patterson. There has been an ?element of nuisance value? regarding the new road, with boy-racers from outside the area racing up Granada Drive to the roundabout and doing burn-outs. ?There has been a little nuisance, from boy racers breaking signs and bottles, because there were basically no houses up there. ?But with five new houses going in that will stop that,? he says. In regard to Churton Park?s new link road, Mr Patterson prefers to stay out of the debate. Churton park community association president Roger Ellis says the extension on their side of Westchester Drive is needed to avoid growing congestion on Johnsonville and Newlands streets. ?We have been supportive of this extension for nearly 20 years now, and at the moment both ends of Westchester Drive lead to nowhere.? He says during construction environmental issues will need to be dealt with and minamalised, such as noise and dust An online petition organised by the association closed on June 1, attracting 377 signatures in favour of not delaying the construction of the Westchester Drive extension. ?The petition showed the level of support in the community, there were that many people keen to go and sign up on the website. ?A lot more people than that will benefit from this road, especially those moving into the new developments at the back of Churton,? says Mr Ellis. The Glenside suburb has expressed reservation over the road, but only have around 100 residents compared with Churton?s 6000 plus. A developer contribution fund will pay for around half the cost of the road.
