The Chalmers Community Board is set to begin work to remedy safety issues at a car park next to the harbour-side cycleway amid concerns a vehicle could reverse into the path of a cyclist or pedestrian.
Board members voted to prioritise work on the St Leonards car park at last week's meeting, putting a proposal to relocate an historic railway building to the site on the back burner.
Board member and city councillor Andrew Noone said work to bring the car park up to scratch, which included laying gravel and installing barriers between it and the shared pathway, would likely begin within the next six weeks.
The board gave priority to the work over a plan to relocate an old railway station building, which used to be located in St Leonards, from Clinton, because it wanted to sort out the ''basics'' first.
''We are obviously trying to avoid any conflict between users of the cycleway/walkway and people pulling in to park their cars there,'' he said.
The board was not aware of any near misses between cars and pedestrians or cyclists, but making the car park ''safe and functional'' was something that needed to be done promptly.
The work would likely cost between $1500 and $2000 and the community board would be paying for it out of its project fund.
Work to ''enhance'' the car park area, which could include the relocation of the building, would be done later.
The man behind the plan to shift the railway building, Mick Field, said the fact no definite time frame had been given for the relocation meant it would no longer happen.
The plan to relocate the building had been around for some years, but had been delayed while the council finished the shared pathway, he said. The plan was to use the building to house information about the history of the St Leonards area.
Mr Field had been given approval by KiwiRail to have the building relocated, but had now given up on it happening. It had been annoying how long the council and the community board had known about the proposal without getting back to him on the issue, he said.
