A controversial roading trial in Mount Maunganui has been canned to the delight of two elected councillors and some residents.

Tauranga City Council commissioners decided against progressing the Innovating Streets at The Mount project, saying it did not have sufficient community support.

The project would have trialled a temporary shared path along Marine Parade from Pacific Avenue to Tay Street, a roundabout at the Tay Street-Marine Parade intersection and two new pedestrian crossings.

This would have seen most of the parallel parking on Marine Parade removed, taking the number of parking spaces from 698 to 434.

Elected councillor Steve Morris says he's grateful that the community has been listened to in this case.

'The idea of removing more carparks from the Mount was about as sharp as a plate of jelly,” he says.

Commissioners instead decided to include a cost and feasibility study for the extension of the Marine Parade boardwalk to the Oceanbeach Road roundabout in the draft Long-term Plan 2021-2031.

Innovating Streets project manager Guy Protheroe says the project was always at risk of not going ahead because it had to be taken back to council for approval.

'At the end of the day, this could be the possible result,” says Guy. 'That's disappointing after a good body of the community had indicated support for it, but we always recognise that there were people out there who were strongly against it as well.”

Originally the project was looking at trialling changes to four areas of Mount Maunganui north. The other areas were The Mall, Marine Parade between Adams Avenue and Banks Avenue and Banks Avenue and Salisbury Avenue.

Budget constraints meant the project was narrowed down to one area, with Tay Street chosen because it had the most community support.

The majority of the funding for the trial was from Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency, with 90 per cent of the $990,000 coming from NZTA and the other 10 per cent from council. Now the trial is not going ahead, NZTA will retain the unused funds.

The engagement process was a first for council, with a community design group formed consisting of 28 people from all corners of the community to co-design the ideas.

Elected councillor Dawn Kiddie says she and Morris suggested the new model of engagement and, at first, it was met with some reluctance from the council and some councillors.

'However, after many meetings with the Mount Ratepayers, Residents and Retailers Association, the Innovating Streets group emerged,” says Dawn.

'It was made up of a diverse range of people championing various groups.

'It's important that instead of Tauranga City Council telling the community what it needs, that the community stand up and inform council what it needs. In this case they did.”

The idea of extending the boardwalk came from the community design group, and Guy says that is a positive to come out of the project.

He says the community design group model can be used for other projects, and it enables more detailed feedback from the public.

'We've learned some lessons,” he says, 'and we could roll this technique and approach over into other projects.”