r/blenheim • u/Impressive-Name5129 • Jul 02 '26
Town CBD revamp to start Monday
Blenheim's ‘slippy’ pavers to be removed after elderly injured in falls
Kira Carrington
Local Democracy Reporter.
Reported by sun news paper
Meemee Maung has seen three elderly people fall over on the slippery pavers outside her shop on Blenheim’s Market St in the past year.
One lady, who had been limping across the road, slipped and fell on her front as she reached the footpath outside her business, Easy Mart, Meemee said.
She added she could see blood on the lady’s leg after the fall.
“It was a great shock ... she [was] quite an old lady, so we [felt] so worried,” she said.
She added it was “very good” that the Marlborough District Council had announced the removal of the pavers during a five-month makeover of Market Street.
“It will be safe for everybody, including me, we are in and out of here every day.”
The $4.3 million refurbishment of Blenheim’s town centre, set to begin on Monday, was to be completed in time for the busy Christmas trading period.
Marlborough’s slippery clay pavers have been a notorious hazard. In 2019, reports of injuries prompted the council to acid-wash the pavers to improve their slip resistance.
But that didn’t stop one woman being left bedbound with severe bruising and a broken hip and arm after slipping on the pavers in 2020.
Mee mee was one of several business owners and shoppers celebrating the news.
Market St Cafe owner Diane Grant said she had to walk carefully over the pavers.
“I don’t like those cobbles, they’re slippy,” she said.
“There’s been a few accidents out there.”
The council’s project and contracts manager, Maighan Watson, said the pavers, which were installed in 1999, had come to the end of their useful life, and had been identified as “potentially hazardous” in the rain.
The pavers would be replaced with a combination of leftover granite and brick pavers, originally installed on High St and Wynen St and around Te Kahu o Waipuna Marlborough Library, and a new concrete paver, Maighan said.
Maighan said the clay pavers would be diverted from landfill and made available for the public at The Dump Shop for landscaping and other home projects.
The project would be funded from existing budgets and a targeted CBD commercial rate, she said.
She also confirmed pedestrian access to businesses would be maintained during construction.
Blenheim resident Daniel Kavanagh said while it would be good for the street to have a facelift, he wasn’t sure it would bring vitality back to the town centre.
“The problem at the moment is the economy, so whether you’re going to draw more people in, just through doing [the refurbishment], I suppose, remains to be seen.”
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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u/Impressive-Name5129 Jul 02 '26
I nearly slipped on those pavers once. They are bloody dangerous. At least that issue will be rectified