Tauranga City Council is distancing itself from a decision to close the Seaway Terrace/Ngatai Road walkway.

A council official has told SunLive that it is KiwiRail driving the decision to close the walkway on safety grounds, not the city council.

The Seaway Terrace/Ngatai Road walkway. Photos: File.

However, KiwiRail says it is the council's decision not to pay for an overbridge that is behind the closure.

The informal crossing, which is on a bend, does not meet minimum safety requirements or sightlines, says KiwiRail communications advisor Alexa Langdale.

'Trains travel on this line at 80 kilometres per hour,” says Alexa. 'We require visibility to be 240 metres in each direction. At this crossing the sightlines only reach half of KiwiRail's minimum requirements at 120 metres.

'We can understand this change may cause some frustration, and hope our response helps people better understand why, due to serious safety concerns, KiwiRail believe it's necessary to stop people using it to get from one side of the rail tracks to the other.”

KiwiRail is working to close any crossings that don't meet minimum safety codes if the local councils decide not to bring the crossings up to the required safety standards.

Late last year, KiwiRail and Tauranga City Council discussed an alternative to closing the crossing, which could include funding a grade-separated overbridge. The council, however, decided not to pursue the construction of an overbridge in this location.

'While we appreciate that residents may have used this crossing and the adjoining walkway for many years, our train service frequency is increasing and they are getting longer and heavier,” adds Alexa.

'These factors increase the risk of an incident occurring.

'The use of this line will only increase with the Port of Tauranga expansion, and we cannot allow a dangerous crossing to stay open and risk a tragedy occurring. We urge locals to use the safer alternatives for crossing on Bureta Road and Otumoetai Road.”

Otumoetai ward councillor Catherine Stewart says the decision to close the walkway has not followed due process - something she says residents were promised when the walkway was closed briefly in 2013.

The temporary closure coincided with staff moves to sell off the walkway to save the council the expense of maintaining it.

City council staff approached adjoining landowners 'on their own initiative” to see if there was any interest in buying the walkway land – a move revealed at the Projects and Monitoring Committee meeting of September 23, 2013.

'I've listened to the audio (record of the meeting) and those people were given the assurance that there would be consultation if council were to look at closing it,” says Catherine.

'So it came as a surprise to me a few weeks ago that KiwiRail had decided to close it. About two weeks ago I heard that KiwiRail was deciding to close it, but I hadn't heard anything since 2013.”

According to a city council and KiwiRail press release, the walkway will be closed on April 13 – the same day Seaway Terrace residents intend presenting a second petition on the walkway to the city council.

But Catherine believes the closure date is going to be delayed.

'There's a communication slip-up between our side and the people who live in that area who made the petition to council,” she explains.

'There's still questions. I haven't got the full picture. There's bits of the jigsaw puzzle missing at this stage.”

Resident Doreen Anderson took the previous petition to council and she's preparing to do it again. According to Doreen, locals are confused about what is happening and the short amount of time they have to respond.

'It looks like they might have already made the decision without any recourse to that little word - democracy,” says Doreen.

'This is where Catherine Stewart says they haven't followed due process in council for closing anything. Nobody knows about it but staff. The actual councillors weren't aware of it happening.”