Rugby Commentator, Radio Host and
Youth Mentor
I came across some news that the council is planning a new pedestrian crossing on Peachgrove Road. Now, it’s clear there’s a need for better safety, it’s a busy road, and many people of all ages cross it each day and need to do so with safety and ease of access. But in light of recent questions about cost, particularly the questions raised by Auckland’s Mayor Wayne Brown about the cost of a pedestrian crossing up there, I started wondering: What is this one going to cost us?
Mayor Brown made a bold statement regarding Auckland’s $500,000 crossing, saying:
"There are people in AT who have convinced themselves that is a good spend of money, and it’s not... They’ve lost the plot in terms of value."
So, I submitted an Official Information Act (OIA) request to Hamilton City Council. The response I received was both surprising and concerning.
$920,000, that’s the projected cost for the crossing, including a 30% contingency. I was taken aback by this amount. Butthen I noticed something that really caught my eye: nearly all the cost breakdown was redacted or in simple terms blacked out.
Now, as ratepayers, aren’t we entitled to see exactly how our money is being spent? Especially in times like these when people are already stretched thin with the rising cost of living. Transparency isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a must. We can’t see planning costs, cost of designs, reports and management of the project, just 3 totals.
I spoke with local councillor Andrew Bydder, who posted on Facebook the issue. His point? Ifyou look at the cost of this crossing, it’s the cost of building a home, he then superimposed a photo of a newly built home onto Peachgrove Road and the point wasn’t lost on many of his Facebook followers. The post gained traction because it’s a question many of us are asking: Why is a pedestrian crossing costing more than my house?
But the story doesn’t end there. Just yesterday, I received another email from Council. They admitted they had made a mistake and sent me the wrong information which was the alternative proposal which included a raised platform. The actual cost isn’t $920,000… it’s $750,000.
That’s $170,000 less than the first figure… good news, right? But let’s not get too comfortable. $750,000 is still a significant amount of money. So, I’m left asking once again: Are we getting value for money? There is even an eye watering amount $173,058 for contingencies. A dictionary meaning of contingency is “a future event or circumstance which is possible but cannot be predicted with certainty” Roads and footpaths are a core service of our council, and yet they allow 30%of the price of a street level pedestrian crossing for something that may happen that they haven’t predicted.
It’s not that safety isn’t important, it’s incredibly important but the question remains: How much is too much?
And here’s where things get even more concerning. Hamilton’s rates are set to increasedramatically in the next decade. By the time the Long-Term Plan (LTP) is fully in motion, the average ratepayer could be paying close to $10,000 a year, that’s a potential $200 a week just for rates and increased rent for tenants to cover this cost.
For families already struggling, this is a serious concern for our city's population, no matter what age group they are from.
What will this do to the mental wellbeing of our residents?
How will it affect the community's sense of security and stability?
This isn’t just about a pedestrian crossing, it is way more than that. It’s about how we as a city manage our finances, how we prioritise safety, and how we ensure that every dollar we spend reflects the real needs of our community. We need to be asking the hard questions because the cost of everything is going up.
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