From road to street

WALKER Road is to be re-named Walker Street – the part in town anyway.

Councillors approved the change following consultation with Ngati Rora and other affected property owners.

The reasoning behind the change was to provide better address clarity for emergency services by renaming the urban section of the road.

Property addressing is needed for mail, emergency services (fire, police, ambulance), as well as utilities like power and water. It’s also the basis of New Zealand’s voting system.

Council strategy and environment general manager Alex Bell told councillors that apart from some Walker Road residents seeking clarification on what it would mean for their property, no one opposed the name change.

“It was acknowledged that some initial inconvenience would occur as individuals will be required to update address information,” Alex said.

Initial individual inconvenience was not considered to outweigh the ongoing and wider individual and public benefits, which would be achieved by sorting out the duplicated addresses. Importantly, it would ensure emergency, postal and electoral services were not adversely affected.

The change came about after council staff completed a policy on the naming of new and the renaming of existing streets and roads during 2024.