West Coast Regional Council chair Allan Birchfield. Photo: West Coast Regional Council
Bilingual road signs and a "no bloody idea" comment by the chairperson of the West Coast Regional Council generated some heat in cyberspace over the weekend.
By this morning, a Local Democracy Reporting story on the rollout of some bilingual signs planned by the NZ Transport Agency, had drawn hundreds of comments on local Facebook page the Coasters Club, founded by retiring Westland mayor Bruce Smith.
Some of the commentary was around a rejection of Māori cultural value and the place of te reo as an official language of New Zealand.
The issue arose last week at a meeting of the West Coast Regional Transport Committee.
Regional council chair Allan Birchfield, who also chairs the transport committee, questioned the ability of people to interpret road safety signs in particular.
"The majority of the people in New Zealand don't speak Māori, so they'll have no bloody idea what [it] is trying to say," Birchfield said at the meeting.
And by mid-morning today, 18 hours after the story was posted on the Coasters Club, it had generated 524 comments.
The level of interest had certainly been extraordinary, Smith said today.
"The comments are astronomical."
The tone of some was "unfortunate" and he rejected the racist reaction "completely".
An example of the new kura signs being rolled out, at Karoro School on the southern side of Greymouth. Photo: LDR / Brendon McMahon
One commentator on the Coasters Club said, "fixing the condition of our roads would be more appropriate than wasting money on changing signage just to include Māori language".
Others got the safety point: "The signs are universal, if you can't tell what a stop sign is just because the word is different you probably need to hand in your licence."
Another noted that, "Wether (sic) you can or can not read the sign, the issue is the cost of replacement signs, money better spent on maintenance of the roads".
A person with experience in countries with bilingual signs "loved it" and said those with an issue should assess themselves.
"Honestly, it'd be a few dollars to stick another word on the sign," that well travelled commentator said.
Smith said what Birchfield had actually tried to say about ensuring safety and signs had been completely missed by some and became a platform for their own ends.
"That wasn't the comment made - people have their own agendas, people go out there and fire shots. I completely reject that. It's a whole lot of nonsense. It's about getting the money that truckers pay, back into our roads."
"Should we really be spending money on these [signs] or be putting it into roads?" Smith asked. "Is that good value for money?"
The matter was discussed during an update on various aspects of the Road to Zero safety campaign from the NZTA's regional relationships director James Caygill, including the efficacy of stop-go signs in Māori.
Birchfield asked him to elaborate: "Just explain this: we're going to have roadwork signs in Māori?"
Caygill said consultation would initially look at 'wayfinding' and 'welcome' signs but it could also extend to roadworks signs but 'stop-go' signs used for roadworks would not be up for debate.
A lot of signs were photographic, without words, and where there were strong safety concerns NZTA saw no need to consult, he told the committee.
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air