A Queenstown councillor’s pouring cold water on a drinking fountain installed by the entrance to the resort’s arterial road project.
Gavin Bartlett believes the angular-shaped fountain outside Hurley’s, by the Frankton Rd entrance to the ‘road to nowhere’, is a potential hazard.
‘‘It’s highly dangerous and someone’s going to walk into it and break their leg or skateboard into it or bike into it.
‘‘It’s right at femur height.
‘‘I’ve raised it briefly with [council’s] property and infrastructure [department] but of course it’s all been done by the Alliance.’’
Bartlett says on an earlier plan the fountain was about 10 metres towards the Melbourne St arterial road where there’s a wider footpath.
‘‘The part that extends over the path has quite a thin profile to it, and it is quite difficult to spot if you weren’t paying attention.
‘‘The question is whether we need it or not, but the second part is the shape of that fountain, the way it leans over the footpath … when you see things like this you think are a danger to people, you’ve got a duty of care to bring it up.’’
Kelly Bray, who manages the next-door Autoline Motel on Dublin St, says ‘‘they come tearing down on their mountain bikes or their skateboards — the thing’s sticking out’’.
‘‘The ridiculous thing is they’ve got road cones everywhere for no reason, and they put this thing in the bloody footpath.
‘‘It actually protrudes right out, it’s an accident waiting to happen.’
“They’re talking about cutting back on money because they’ve overspent [on the arterial road], and they put a bloody drinking fountain there – for god’s sake, who’s going to use it?”
Asked whether a seat installed this week, next to the fountain, might make it less hazardous, Bray’s not impressed: “It gives you somewhere to sit while you wait for the ambulance, I suppose.”
In response, an Alliance spokesperson says the water fountain and bench are one of two such features they’ve installed in the area — the other’s in upper Ballarat St.
‘‘They’ve been designed as places for people to sit down, rest and refresh as they walk around town, especially in the summer.
‘‘The Alliance sees no safety risk in their respective locations.’’
