Auckland CBD businesses to take legal action against council over Queen St plans

April 29, 2021

Not everyone is happy about the plans to ditch vehicles on the famous CBD street.

Auckland is used to copping flak for its traffic. Mostly, everyone whinges about the number of cars on the road and how long it takes to get anywhere.

But it's a plan for pedestrian traffic that's really got people fuming. The council wants to turn Queen Street into a walkers' paradise.

It comes as a mob of roadcones and concrete cubes have taken up residence on the roadside.

Initially it was just a temporary Covid measure but now they've been absorbed into Auckland Council's plan to make the CBD pedestrian friendly.

Local businesses say it's a disgrace – Viv Beck, CEO of Auckland’s Heart of the City says it’s raised issues on behalf of many businesses in Queen Street over the last year, “unsuccessfully”.

Heart of the City represents over 10,000 businesses in the area and is part of a group that’s taking High Court action against the council.

“We became concerned to know that what we think are sub-optimal works are about to start so we really had to stand up and get a better outcome for Queen Street,” Beck says.

She says the challenge is the extra space that was put in for Covid-distancing “hasn’t been used well”.

“Largely it’s actually empty,” she says.

Auckland Council has told Seven Sharp its Chief Executive plans to meet with Heart of the City tomorrow, saying legal action is “unfortunate” and it would “rather work with them than waste ratepayers money on legal proceedings”.

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