Slippery tiles: From campaign issue to someone else’s issue?

Saturday, 7 June 2025

Almost six years ago, Nigel Bowen got down on Stafford St to have his photo taken ahead of the 2019 local body elections to highlight that sorting out the slippery tiles was part of his mayoralty campaign.

Six years ago, as he contested the mayoralty for the first time, Nigel Bowen made a promise to sort out the town’s slippery tiles.

And now, just months out from the next election the two-term Timaru mayor’s talking about making them an issue for a group of volunteers.

Speaking during Annual Plan deliberations last week, Bowen suggested the town’s CBD Group take the lead on the issue.

Responding to a question from councillor Owen Jackson, who said he was of the understanding a plan was in place to deal with the slippery tiles, Bowen said there was still a mix of new and old tiles in the CBD.

“I remember when I first came in as a councillor, I think we … had an estimate of $3.5 million to replace all the tiles.

Timaru District councillor Owen Jackson asked about the slippery tiles during Annual Plan deliberations and said he thought a plan was in place to deal with them.

“We’ve progressively replaced some of the tiles and put the non-slip.

“If it’s a priority of the CBD, then that may be something that the CBD Group can come back and, you know, I challenged them today on what are your priorities … if it’s replace the tiles … that’s fine … they need to potentially drive that.”

Bowen said he doubted it would be the group’s number one priority with “all the work we’ve done”.

“When we lift them we are redoing them in those areas over time. But, you know, $3.5m six years ago now would be $5m, and that’s probably without Temuka and Geraldine, I would expect.”

Councillor Stacey Scott said she agreed with Bowen, if the CBD Group considered the tiles to be a priority.

But Timaru CBD Group chairperson, Glen Patterson, said infrastructure was not the responsibility of the group.

Timaru CBD Group chairperson Glen Patterson, left, pictured with Tania Stoddart in 2024, said infrastructure was not the responsibility of the volunteer group. (File photo)

“The tiles are something the mayor campaigned on … they are on council land and no different to a footpath outside your house, we don’t have any authority or mandate to intervene,” Patterson said.

“I would say the council has a duty of care to make them safe for the public.“

Bowen’s first mayoralty campaign in 2019 focused on promoting Timaru as a place to do business, attracting tourists, and, in his words, “finally addressing those slippery tiles”.

Ahead of the 2022 local body elections, Bowen was challenged on the issue and asked why he was yet to deliver on the election promise made in 2019.

During Annual Plan deliberations, the council’s group manager corporate and communications, Stephen Doran, told councillors, as the person who looks after the council’s Facebook page, the number of complaints about tiles were “pretty low these days”.

“I don’t think it’s far up the priority for Timaru … after it received a … non-slip treatment it’s probably fallen off the radar a bit.”

Timaru CBD Group chairperson Glen Patterson said he had helped a lady after she slipped on the tiles recently.

However, Patterson, a jeweller with a business on Stafford St, said the tiles “are still an issue” and questioned whether some residents, particularly the elderly, avoided visiting town because of them.

“The coating sprayed on them helped for a while, but they seem to be back to slippery again.

“I have recently helped an elderly lady after she slipped on them, which is not a nice thing to have to do.”

Patterson said it was his understanding that CBD ratepayers paid a higher proportion in rates, and part of that was “put into infrastructure to future proof our community”.

The CBD Group, which made no mention of the tiles in its Annual Plan submission, would be prepared to give input into any infrastructure projects the council was considering, he said.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Rangitata MP James Meager and mayor Nigel Bowen (obscured) pictured visiting the Timaru CBD Group’s Matariki Night Market in 2024. (File photo)

“But it’s up to the council to do the work and pay for it.”

He said the group was working hard to grow the CBD into a thriving community but was run “on the smell of an oily rag” and was self-funded by landlords and tenants who pay into a fund which was used to promote the CBD and run events.

“The council collects this on our behalf and distributes it to us. From time to time we have had council funding for specific projects…

“We are working very hard behind the scenes to make things happen for our town centre and this is our first year with funds, so even though the public may not see improvements straight away, rest assured it is happening.”

In response to a question from councillor Peter Burt, during the deliberations, the council’s group manager infrastructure Andrew Dixon said it had been concentrating on replacing tiles in “higher” use pedestrian areas.

“We did do that non-slip treatment, but that had a limited life and we’re about halfway through that.

“I think we just need to continue on replacing them when we can in the most efficient way so where it’s been dug up we will generally replace with new tiles, but there is an affordability issue — the mayor is quite correct in the numbers.”

The Timaru CBD group was established following council facilitated consultation with stakeholders in 2016, which identified the need for a strong advocacy group for the town centre.

Bowen was appointed as the spokesperson of the group in December 2016 and became its first chairperson in 2017. He remained on the group’s executive committee after becoming a councillor in September 2017, but relinquished the role of chair.

He remained on the group after winning the mayoralty in 2019, and resigned in 2020 saying he was “too conflicted” by the possibility the group would take legal action against the council’s holdings company, Timaru District Holdings Ltd, over its sale of the former Showgrounds site.