Mayor Neil Brown

It's great this week to see that a preferred contractor has been appointed to design and build the new second bridge over the Ashburton River at Chalmers Avenue.

Fletchers was named by Associate Transport Minister James Meager as the contractor to progress this job, which is a joint project between Council and NZ Transport Agency.

We've been told that construction work is on track to begin early next year, which is good news indeed for Ashburton and Tinwald, as a lot of local traffic will use the new crossing and this will lead to less congestion on SH1. It also means that if the existing bridge is out of action because of a crash, or because of flooding, then there is another crossing to keep our town connected, as well as the South Island.

You may have read or seen already work in the river to encourage the black-billed gulls to nest away from the construction zone, and another critter that will be relocated if happened upon will be native skinks that live on the river margins too.

I want to remind residents that this new bridge is not a bypass - that misconception seems to be sticking in the minds of some.

Traffic passing through Ashburton on SH1, trucks and cars, will not be leaving the highway to detour over the new bridge, why would they add miles and minutes to their journey through town unless the old bridge was out of action.

If you have questions about the second bridge and what it could look like, I urge you to come along to a public information session being held at the Ashburton Library and civic building on Thursday 11 September, from 3.30pm to 6.30pm.

Another piece of great news this week is that our Glow in the Park community event was a big winner at the national Event Association of New Zealand annual awards. Glow won the Local Government Event of the Year, beating the Auckland Lantern Festival, Whakatane’s wild food festival and Hastings’ meatball festival.

Congratulations to our fabulous event organising team, and to the many thousands in the community who come along to enjoy the lights.