FAQs

Our School Safety Improvement Project is being done with the support of Transport Choices, a $348 million programme funded by the Climate Emergency Response Fund through Waka Kotahi, which aims to demonstrate what’s possible for communities across Aotearoa New Zealand by quickly providing people with healthier, more affordable, and safer transport choices that are good for us, and for the environment.

The total value of both phases of the project is $7.8M. Transport Choices funding will cover 80% of the project, with a 20% co-funding contribution from SDC.

No matter where we live, we should be able to move around easily, in ways that help us to protect our climate.

Transport Choices aims to demonstrate what’s possible for communities across New Zealand, by quickly providing people with more transport options, and making it easier and more affordable to travel in ways that are good for all of us and our environment.

Don't worry, we’re not going to lose focus on other components of our transport network. All modes of transport are equally important in our network. With increased climate change concerns, walking and cycling is a viable option to reduce our country’s carbon emissions. By promoting walking and cycling, fewer cars will be on the roads, which will free up traffic flows around Stratford, particularly on State Highway 3, and outside schools at drop-off and pick-up times.

We’ve worked hard to limit the impact this project has on parking, but improvements in our walking and cycling network will cause some unmarked on-street parking being removed where cycleways are created.

If your property is affected, we'll be in touch with our plans, and we encourage you to talk to us or give us your feedback online or by email if you have concerns.

We know that car parking at Wai o Rua – Stratford Aquatic Centre can be an issue. Under our proposal, the parking between the two entrances to Wai o Rua will be removed to allow for a raised crossing facility. Alongside this, we’re negotiating to purchase the old Post Office building which could provide additional car parking space for the aquatic centre and other facility users.

The need for safer and more active school travel options has been raised by people in our community research. The funding we’ve received is to create safe opportunities for school children to walk or bike to school, but what we’re developing will benefit many in our community – young and older too.

Our Connecting our Communities Strategy acknowledges that our transport network needs to work for all ages. We’re currently developing 3-year, 10-year, and 30-year plans to upgrade our network, and we’re keeping all our users in mind while we do this work.

We’re planning to connect all Stratford district communities together as part of our Connecting our Communities Strategy, and we want to work with our rural schools to encourage their students to walk and bike.

If you live rurally and you want more walking and cycling opportunities at your local school, please let us know and raise it with your school, too. That way, we’ll have a better understanding of the needs and wants of our community.

The funding from Waka Kotahi's Transport Choices programme comes from the Climate Emergency Response Fund, which is additional money that’s being given to us to fund transport projects which help to reduce the amount of greenhouse emissions created by the way we travel. We can only use this funding for our Stratford Transport Choices project.

Our work on this project will not take money away from our routine maintenance budgets, which are used to fill in potholes. Any potholes on State Highway 3 or 43 are managed by Waka Kotahi.

If you’ve spotted a pothole or issue with our road network (outside of the State Highways) let us know by using the Antenno App, or by phoning us on 06 765 6099.

Waka Kotahi have set a deadline of end of June 2024 to complete our Transport Choices project, but our work to improve our district’s transport networks won’t stop there! We’ll continue to develop our walking and cycling network in the district to provide better connections with our communities.

Access to your property won’t be affected. On-road cycle lanes will have gaps in the kerbs at each driveway. We just ask that you be aware of cyclists when entering and exiting your property.

There are options available which will allow for safe collection of rubbish and recycling. We’re looking at which one is going to work best for our community. We’ll be in touch with affected residents to let them know more. If works are proposed for your street and this is a concern for you, please let us know.

Another road bridge across the Patea River has been identified by Council in our Long-Term Plan as an important part of the puzzle, and we’re working with Waka Kotahi on how this can be achieved.

Through our community research, we’ve heard from people who have said that our current disjointed network of footpaths and cycle lanes is a barrier to them walking and cycling in Stratford. This came out in research done as part of our Walking and Cycling Strategy 2019, and our survey to the caregivers and parents of kids at Avon School, Stratford Primary School, and St Joseph’s School earlier this year. We also get comments about the need for better and safer walking and cycling paths in our other community surveys, too.

Our Transport Choices initiative will help make our walking and cycling networks connectable, accessible, safe, and easy to use.

Your young cyclist is allowed to bike alongside you on the footpath. When you think they're ready, they can start biking on the cycle path.