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It’s a new year, and a fresh start for many, but some business owners have started 2021 at war with the authority that is supposed to work for them. ��

Cycleways are back in the headlines after it was revealed the council wants to remove on-street parking near the popular Copenhagen Bakery on Harewood Road and replace them with cycleways. ��

It also wants to reduce the busy four land road to two lanes to “make it safer.”��

This is music to the ears for some, but for others, the plan is a kick in the guts. ��

The owner of Copenhagen Bakery has been through a lot after her city business was destroyed in the 2011 quake.��

She’s been through hell getting resource consents to move to Harewood, and now, she says, the council wants to “annihilate” her business. ��

Die-hard cycling advocates on Facebook have told her “tough, there’s more to life than cars and roads. We’ve got to save the planet.”��

I understand where they’re coming from, but utopia thinking doesn’t need to destroy small businesses.��

As I’ve said before, some of Christchurch’s cycleways are brilliant and it’s fantastic to see many cyclists, while I drive to work, particularly at the intersection of Strickland and Brougham Streets.��

When we were first discussing cycleways 8 years ago on ��һ�ǿ�����talk ZB, most residents, including myself, were overwhelmingly positive. We’re the flattest city in New Zealand, and it made sense. ��

But I don’t think people envisioned the removal of on-street parks or the reduction of road sizes - and that’s where the conversation gets tricky. ��

Council said there has been plenty of consultation with the public,��citing the��Papanui Parallel Cycleway from Northlands to the city,��as an example of their flexibility.��

They made 80 changes, which seems like a strange gloat. Shouldn’t the highly paid city planners have got it right in the first time?��

I admire people who are passionate, and the cycling lobby group do an outstanding job mobilising members to make oral submissions.��

The mayor told me it is important for people to engage in the process. She’s right. But what about those,��the majority, who��didn't want the council to donate $10 million to��one of the richest landlords in the city, the Anglican Church -��but the council did��so��anyway.��

What about the��majority��who��didn't want rate increases��last year during one of the toughest economic periods the country has seen in recent years,��but the council went ahead and increased the rates by even more than what they initially announced. ��

I’ll say it again, cycleways are not a problem, but the way in which some council staff make decisions and communicate to the community must change. ��

They need to take the public with them. Just last year a popular florist on Edgeware Road was left in tears after finding out the council was going to remove all nearby on-street car parking.��

The first she knew about it was when a Fulton Hogan contractor told her on the same day they were to start digging up the road. ��

It’s commendable that Mayor Lianne Dalziel has promised to meet a concerned business owner.��

But if the latest plan was so good, she wouldn’t need to in the first place. ��