The closure of Forfar Street on the north side of the Forfar/Warrington intersection is one of a suite of changes made by the Council as part of the Downstream Effects Management Plan (DEMP). The DEMP is a programme of work intended to identify and address downstream effects of.the Christchurch Northern Corridor (CNC). You can read more about the DEMP decision-making process in my previous article.
A consequence of Forfar’s closure is that local traffic is left with fewer options to move through that area, impacting other streets, especially adjacent Francis Avenue. Is this unreasonable? If the Council re-opened Forfar Street would it make life better for locals? Questions over the continued closure of Forfar Street come up from time to time, and in April 2026 Council staff provided the following information on the matter:
“The closure of the southern end of Forfar Street was implemented as part of the Christchurch Northern Corridor Downstream Effects Management Plan (DEMP), which was approved by the Extraordinary Joint Meeting of the Linwood-Central-Heathcote and Papanui-Innes Community Boards on 13 September 2019 and confirmed by Council on 24 September 2019. The purpose of the closure was to protect residential streets from increased through-traffic resulting from the Northern Corridor motorway.
“More recent modelling indicates that reopening Forfar Street could reduce traffic on Francis Avenue by approximately 900 vehicles per day, but would provide only a minor reduction in traffic on Flockton Street. This means the improvements currently being delivered on Flockton Street would still be required.
“The modelling also indicates that reopening Forfar Street would divert more than 2,200 vehicles per day from Cranford Street onto the local road network, increasing traffic volumes on a number of residential streets in the DEMP area. This would likely cause streets such as Mersey Street, Mayfield Avenue, Severn Street and Thames Street to exceed the DEMP threshold of a 30% traffic increase, which would then trigger the need for further interventions such as additional traffic calming and potentially road renewals.
“These impacts are the same types of effects the original closure was intended to avoid. For this reason, reopening Forfar Street has been assessed multiple times previously but is not recommended as a preferred option. This position has been communicated to the Community Board previously, including the briefing on 28 June 2022 and the decision report for Francis Avenue and Flockton Street considered by the Papanui-Innes-Central Community Board on 11 July 2024, where reopening Forfar Street was considered but ruled out.”
Question for readers
How are you impacted by the closure of Forfar Street? What are your thoughts on the current road layout, and what changes (if any) would you like to see?
Simon Britten 