A notice of requirement application from the New Zealand Transport Agency to carry out a second upgrade of the Caversham Valley Highway will be deliberated at a three-day public hearing, next week.
A pre-hearing report, prepared by council planner Lianne Darby, has recommended conditions be imposed on the NZTA project to provide protection for the forest habitat of the peripatus.
The peripatus is a small velvety caterpillar-like invertebrate, which is often referred to as the "missing link" between worms and arthropods. It uses a sticky substance to trap and eat its prey.
Colonies of the worm have been established and encouraged in bush-clad private sections and on council reserve land on the south-facing side of the Caversham Valley.
The planning report recommends several steps be undertaken before any road works begin.
An alternative area of land should either be acquired or used as a replacement habitat to compensate for lost council reserve land, and a translocation plan for peripatus be prepared.
A search, capture, and translocation exercise of peripatus should also be undertaken, before any works and a peripatus management plan should be prepared as a reference document for the council, the report recommends.
As part of the road works, the fringes of the highway on the southern side of the valley should be planted with a "natural assemblage" of native trees and shrubs to provide a future habitat for native birds, invertebrates, and the peripatus.
Recommendations to account for the discovery of any archaeological artefacts, koiwi tangata (human skeletal remains), and any taonga during the construction process, are also included in the report.
