Landlord Still Fighting Yarrow Street Intersection Upgrade

An Invercargill commercial business owner will literally go to any lengths to stop the Invercargill City Council from taking away parks outside his Yarrow Street shopping centre. Related: Yarrow Street Intersection Speed Bump Is Out

Colin Stuart, who now lives in Ashburton said he was evicted from the council recently, by police, when he became angry at staff for not listening to his concerns over the new intersection upgrade.

“I started to get a little bit cross,” he admitted.

Speaking to whatsoninvers.nz afterwards, he said the loss of four carparks outside the shopping centre to make way for new cycle lanes would “kill my shops completely.”

He wants $400,000 in compensation from the council to be able to move his shops back 10m off the footpath so he can reconstruct the businesses again.

“I will go to whatever lengths possible to stop this happening,” he said.

Colin bought the shopping centre 40 years ago as an investment, when the former teacher was living in Invercargill.

An avid cyclist, he was also concerned the cycle lanes would make the street dangerous because of the high flow of traffic that use it – council noted at its last Infrastructure Committee meeting up to 6000 traffic movements a day.

He said the children in the area don’t use the cycle lanes because they are too unsafe, and instead ride on the footpaths instead.

“I have spent hours on my roof and not seen anyone using them,” he said.

Council recently identified the intersection was high risk, with 18 crashes recorded in the past five years.