Kurt Brehmer Walkway

I’m not sure if many of you realise that you have a little gem sitting in your Rosebank backyard. I’m talking about the Kurt Brehmer Walkway which runs from the West End Rowing Club situated at the Saunders Reserve all the way along to Charann Place, Avondale.

In the winter of 2015 due to damage caused by development work done on private land adjoining the Kurt Brehmer Walkway, a ruptured stormwater line caused a 400m wide land slip to occur. The council then closed the Kurt Brehmer Walkway and fenced off access through the slip site area.

On the 28th April 2021 Gilbert Brakey (The Whau River Catchment Trust) and Kim Watts (RBA) will present a deputation to the Whau Local Board on “Why open the Kurt Brehmer Walkway?” Kim will be speaking with her Rosebank Wellbeing Collab hat on and pointing out the benefits for workers and residents in our Rosebank community.

We all know that if we look after our physical health it will have an impact on our mental wellbeing, and that workplaces impact on the health and wellbeing of staff and their whanau, along with communities and the wider society around them.

Workplace wellbeing is a key driver of engagement and is strongly linked to employee attention, retention, productivity, improved safety, and positive workplace behaviour.

Research has shown that physical activity can improve mood, reduce stress and anxiety, and help prevent mental health problems. It also demonstrates that how we engage with our physical environment, like spending time outside with nature and focusing on our surroundings can impact on our mental wellbeing.

Most of the businesses along Rosebank Road don’t have the facility for staff to be able to sit outside and eat their lunch. What they do have is the Kurt Brehmer Walkway at their fingertips.

Imagine being able to offer our 9000 Full Time Employees the opportunity to get out of the four walls of their workplace for 20 minutes to half an hour a day and just breathe in some fresh air and relax while eating their lunch.

It doesn’t stop there, the Kurt Brehmer Walkway is the ideal place to be able to walk or run without having to breathe in carbon monoxide fumes from the constant traffic moving along Rosebank Road.

Statistics supplied by the Ministry of Health show that one person in eight (12.5%) of adults are physically active for less than 30 minutes per week! Evidence indicates that physical activity improves muscle and heart function, increases blood flow to the brain and promotes better sleep.

For workplaces who increased regular non-work-related physical activity opportunities for their staff, they saw the following benefits:

  • Overall mental wellbeing increased by 30%
  • Job satisfaction improved by 32%
  • Cognitive responses increased by 22%
  • Experienced less work-related injuries

There is no better time than now to start looking at what we can be doing to change both our existing environment and how we can help local workers and residents improve physical and mental wellbeing.