Timaru council to investigate fixes for district’s slippery tiles

Thursday, 19 June 2025

Timaru’s council has agreed to take another look at the slippery tiles used in towns across the district following further discussion on the long-running issue.

Mayor Nigel Bowen raised the matter of the tiles during Tuesday’s infrastructure committee meeting, and said he wanted to bring it up as it had “been in the paper a couple of times” recently, and he wanted to go over the history of the issue.

Bowen, who had a copy of The Timaru Herald with him in the meeting, recalled during his time as a councillor, prior to being elected mayor in 2019, a proposal to replace the tiles was expected to cost about $3.5 million. He estimated that would be about $5m now.

He said the council was then informed of major infrastructure renewals required in Timaru’s CBD, putting a question mark over replacing the tiles before that work was done.

Bowen said that had been the “pivot” point for the work on the tiles.

He said in the last triennium the council had coated the tiles with a non-slip coating as a five-year solution to gain time while it worked out its renewal programme.

“Obviously we don’t want to spend ratepayers’ money on ripping up surfaces twice when we can rip them up once,” Bowen said.

“It’s still an ongoing concern for certain individuals in the public realm.”

He then suggested the council ascertain whether the tiles were still an issue and said there was still “$4m sitting in year four and five [of the Long Term Plan].

“ … bearing in mind we’ve just had request from Temuka and Geraldine to put non-slip coating on those areas as well.”

Bowen said he had spoken to amputee Josh South, who had raised concerns about the tiles, and been told the new tiles the council had used to replace older ones were also slippery.

“People on crutches slip on the new tiles.”

Bowen said he recalled slipping himself when using crutches some years ago, and raised the possibility of looking at asphalt.

“My view is we would be silly to spend significant money if we are then going to rip something up and do an infrastructure renewal.”

Councillor Owen Jackson made a suggestion that South, who lost his leg in 1993 after he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer, be asked to “test drive” any new tiles the council considered using.

Chief executive Nigel Trainor offered to have a paper prepared outlining potential solutions and costs, and said it would include the infrastructure work required.

That led to a discussion about the infrastructure work being done in tandem with South Canterbury lines company Alpine Energy, but the council’s group manager infrastructure Andrew Dixon said that was no longer the case.

“Their priorities have changed as well,” Dixon told councillors.

Bowen said that highlighted another challenge faced by the council.

“We haven’t been informed that those things have changed, because my understanding was we were still working with Alpine [Energy] around some of those infrastructure upgrades.

“Those are … quite important things to know, because often we’re … speaking out there in the public on certain things and we don’t have the correct information and this has happened previously.”

Trainor replied and said there was also a “conflict here with making sure our footpath is safe for our community”.

“It might be that we come back with a paper and say ‘this is what it [would] cost to seal it, we know in five years we will dig bits of it up’ and we might be quite comfortable at that, or we may not.”

He said he thought a paper was required, and Dixon agreed.

Councillor Michelle Pye said the safety aspect of the tiles concerned her. She said there had been a couple of people in Temuka who had suffered bad falls, and she wanted a plan to get the matter sorted.

Pye said she would not oppose asphalt as an option and noted a red surface had been laid in Pauanui.

Councillor Peter Burt said the key factor was the safety of the public.

“We are not hearing half of what is happening … please bring a paper back … we need all the options.”

Councillor Allan Booth said there was nothing wrong with asphalt, but asked why the council would not just replace the tiles and do the job properly. He said if the council needed to make changes to allow for work, that would be possible.

“Those tiles will still be there and you will either add or subtract.”

Councillor and committee chairperson Sally Parker said the tiles had been a problem for “well over a decade” and she believed they should be looked at.

“I’ve been here nine years anyway, and we’ve been talking about it.”

Bowen queried whether CBD business owners could be asked whether there were still ongoing problems with the tiles, and whether they had any feedback since the non-slip coating had been applied.

Councillor Stacey Scott said she felt that she and the mayor had been “quite unfairly misquoted” following the council’s Annual Plan deliberations on May 27.

“We weren’t asking the CBD Group to fund this, we’re asking them is this a priority and if it is we will deal with it, if this is the biggest priority,” Scott said.

“It’s not about them going out and trying to find the money to fund it … I just wanted to add that.”

Scott was not directly quoted in The Timaru Herald’s coverage, but was reported as having agreed with comments Bowen made regarding the CBD Group.

“Mayor Nigel, you’re right, if the CBD Group consider this a priority,” Scott said at the time.

Her comments came after Bowen suggested the volunteer Timaru CBD Group take the lead on the slippery tiles issue, which was one he campaigned on prior to winning the mayoralty for the first time.

“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 at the time.