Dangers posed by waratahs

MANAWATU District Council is requesting rural property owners to remove metal waratahs from roadside grazing areas because of the danger they pose to passing traffic.

Monitoring and Enforcement Officer, Rhys Sanson, said the many thousands of waratahs throughout the district contravened council’s roadside grazing regulations on risk and safety issues.

“If a cyclist fell off their bike onto a waratah they could be impaled,” he said, “and the same could apply to the driver of a car if one came over the bonnet and through the windscreen.”

Council standards require that all fencing material used for roadside grazing must be designed so that they are clearly visible to road users and cause minimum risk of harm if contacted by a vehicle.

Fencing wires (such as polywire or polytape) and fencing uprights (pigtail standards) are acceptable materials, but not metal waratahs, barbed wire or timber posts.

“Waratahs have been used for roadside grazing in Manawatu for quite some time,” said Mr Sanson, “but council has since decided they are a risk to the public and will work with land owners to have them removed before a serious incident occurs.”

He said Kimbolton Road, one of the district’s main arterial routes, was one of the worst examples, but waratahs were also easily visible on many inter-connecting rural roads.

Mr Sanson said he had already approached a number of property owners about the metal stakes, but they were reluctant to change as they felt other people would still get away with their use.

“We want to raise public awareness about the problem and we don’t believe that anyone would want to be responsible for injuring a member of the public through the use of these standards, especially when many of our roads are being increasingly used for recreational and sporting activities.”

He said council would follow-up with land owners in the near future.