Sign loss creates safety risk retailers

Newmarket retailers say pedestrians have been endangered by Auckland City's removal of two safety signs at one of their suburb's busiest intersections.

They have produced a mock replacement sign after the city council indicated it did not intend replacing the pair it removed more than a year ago while upgrading footpaths around the intersection of Broadway and Morrow St.

Newmarket Business Association chief executive Cameron Brewer was told last week in a letter from a council official that the signs were removed to reduce "clutter in the streetscape", as they had no regulatory authority and were contrary to urban design.

"As the responsibility to exercise care when crossing the road falls on the individual, it is not necessary to provide guidance to pedestrians when they cross the road," Ben Hutchinson of the council's customer management team wrote in response to a complaint from the association.

Following inquiries by the Herald, the council's acting network performance manager, Michael Brown, said it was conscious that the intersection was "unusual" and was considering improvements to "promote the safety of pedestrians at this busy corner".

He indicated that although the council was unlikely to reinstate the signs in their original form, it believed warnings could be painted on to the road surface.

He said there had been no recorded accidents at the intersection for five years.

But Newmarket Patisserie owner Anthony Beagley said he had seen three pedestrians being struck by vehicles during his five years there. "There are near-misses every day."