00:00:00
Speaker 1: You know what's disappeared? Traffic management at the fantastic 9th Avenue Christmas lights display in St. Peter's. Daniel Milkey lives there and joins us now. Daniel, good morning.
00:00:10
Speaker 2: Good morning, guys. How are you?
00:00:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, not too bad. So the council is saying this costs 60 grand. We don't want to do it anymore. We're going to remove permits for food trucks and so forth. It's all getting a bit out of hand. I go there every year. The displays there are unbelievable. Do you think you'll miss the traffic management component or are people going to figure this out?
00:00:28
Speaker 2: Look, I think the traffic management was a key component to make things flow and it's a lot easier for families and people navigate the street. And this was something that the council staff themselves had decided was important and we supported it as well. Probably not to the extent of coverage. We thought it was a little bit unnecessary to cover for three weeks. You could cut it back. But this decision not to do it was voted eight to five against by the councillors themselves. So it wasn't the staff, the staff support it. It was the councillors with a little understanding of how things work, just voting against it. Okay. So the display will still go ahead? You just won't have council managed traffic management? Yeah, we'll still be doing our displays. I mean, we're all pretty fanatical about putting on good displays and we love to see, you know, it's a free event for the community. And I think This year, it's really important. You're seeing people struggle with continual interest rate rises, and it's one of the few things you can do at Christmas that's free. Yeah, it is. And we don't get anything out of it. We just get a little bit of a headache from the council's not making common sense decisions, and not allowing an ice cream van on the street that's been there for 20 years is crazy.
00:01:40
Speaker 1: What would you say the proportion of residents that are in the streets, 9th Street and immediately surrounding it, that are in favour of the scale of what the display has become? Is it 60%? Is it 50%? How many dissenters.
00:01:54
Speaker 2: Would there be? I think it's beyond that. I can genuinely understand that some residents find it difficult to get in and out of their homes, especially on that last week of Christmas. But I'd say from what we've surveyed, I'd say 90%, 95% of people are okay with it. If they don't participate, it's no big deal, but they're still okay with it because they know how important it is. Hmm. It's beyond 60%. I think 60% is what actually puts on a display.
00:02:23
Speaker 1: Yeah. It feels like more than that. It is spectacular. If people haven't done it, I encourage you to go and have a look. It might take a little bit longer. Maybe it'd be quicker, I don't know, within the absence of traffic management the council had before. But if you get a nice night, park your car, walk through. They put on a spectacular display and they're beautiful homes through there too. So they lend themselves to it.
00:02:40
Speaker 2: We're all adults.
00:02:41
Speaker 1: We can work out where to drive the cars and not to get too close and just park a bit further away and walk. Surely we don't need that much traffic
Speaker 1: You know what's disappeared? Traffic management at the fantastic 9th Avenue Christmas lights display in St. Peter's. Daniel Milkey lives there and joins us now. Daniel, good morning.
00:00:10
Speaker 2: Good morning, guys. How are you?
00:00:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, not too bad. So the council is saying this costs 60 grand. We don't want to do it anymore. We're going to remove permits for food trucks and so forth. It's all getting a bit out of hand. I go there every year. The displays there are unbelievable. Do you think you'll miss the traffic management component or are people going to figure this out?
00:00:28
Speaker 2: Look, I think the traffic management was a key component to make things flow and it's a lot easier for families and people navigate the street. And this was something that the council staff themselves had decided was important and we supported it as well. Probably not to the extent of coverage. We thought it was a little bit unnecessary to cover for three weeks. You could cut it back. But this decision not to do it was voted eight to five against by the councillors themselves. So it wasn't the staff, the staff support it. It was the councillors with a little understanding of how things work, just voting against it. Okay. So the display will still go ahead? You just won't have council managed traffic management? Yeah, we'll still be doing our displays. I mean, we're all pretty fanatical about putting on good displays and we love to see, you know, it's a free event for the community. And I think This year, it's really important. You're seeing people struggle with continual interest rate rises, and it's one of the few things you can do at Christmas that's free. Yeah, it is. And we don't get anything out of it. We just get a little bit of a headache from the council's not making common sense decisions, and not allowing an ice cream van on the street that's been there for 20 years is crazy.
00:01:40
Speaker 1: What would you say the proportion of residents that are in the streets, 9th Street and immediately surrounding it, that are in favour of the scale of what the display has become? Is it 60%? Is it 50%? How many dissenters.
00:01:54
Speaker 2: Would there be? I think it's beyond that. I can genuinely understand that some residents find it difficult to get in and out of their homes, especially on that last week of Christmas. But I'd say from what we've surveyed, I'd say 90%, 95% of people are okay with it. If they don't participate, it's no big deal, but they're still okay with it because they know how important it is. Hmm. It's beyond 60%. I think 60% is what actually puts on a display.
00:02:23
Speaker 1: Yeah. It feels like more than that. It is spectacular. If people haven't done it, I encourage you to go and have a look. It might take a little bit longer. Maybe it'd be quicker, I don't know, within the absence of traffic management the council had before. But if you get a nice night, park your car, walk through. They put on a spectacular display and they're beautiful homes through there too. So they lend themselves to it.
00:02:40
Speaker 2: We're all adults.
00:02:41
Speaker 1: We can work out where to drive the cars and not to get too close and just park a bit further away and walk. Surely we don't need that much traffic
