WARWICK SMITH/Stuff
Rachel and Phil Metcalf operate a feijoa orchard, right, set to be 80 metres from the Ōtaki to north of Levin highway. The owners of Annandale Manor, a bed and breakfast and feijoa orchard on Arapaepae Rd, have learned the 103-year-old house is now 80 metres from the new highway. Half the orchard was originally to be taken for the highway, but the corridor had been refined and the property spared. There is relief, but also a lot of frustration. Rachel Metcalf and her husband Phil have owned the property for almost five years and spent more than $200,000 on consents, plans and initial work on a wedding venue that has gone to waste.
Somebody is only liable if a “legal standard has been set,” he said. However, visitors to a mall should be able to expect they won’t be injured, he said.
TOM LEE/STUFF
Wendy McLean was injured by automatic doors at the Chartwell Shopping Centre in Hamilton on November 9. After sharing McLean s story,
Stuff was inundated with stories of others being injured by automatic doors, traffic barrier arms or left with “broken bones” after slipping on an unmarked wet floor. All respondents were pushing for WorkSafe and businesses involved to take better responsibility. In a letter to 81-year-old McLean the mall said the “door sensors failed to detect movement after you had put rubbish in the nearby bin”.
The incident has had a lasting impact on Sarniak-Thomson who continues to suffer pain in her hip and now needs a walking stick to aid her mobility. “I’ve had to stop playing the organ at church because I can’t get up the stairs. I find it annoying because I used to enjoy it.”
MONIQUE FORD / Fairfax NZ/Stuff
Sarniak-Thomson said Stride owed a duty of care to its customers, and was disappointed by the company’s response. With another person being knocked down, it appeared nothing had been done to make the doors safer, she said. Sarniak-Thomson has learned to live with the discomfort but what rankles her most is the denial of responsibility and the lack of common courtesy to check in on her after she was injured on and by the mall’s property.