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The Auckland Council is expected tomorrow afternoon to formally endorse the City Rail Link Project as the top priority transport project for Auckland.
In the wake of the Government’s failure to accept the Business Case for the link, the Council will formally move ahead with the next steps - steps which would have been taken anyway if the Government had given its nod at this stage.
In other words securing the link and working out which properties would have to go and going through the formal procedures on this.
That means the Council will direct Auckland Transport to seek a designation for the City Rail Link and make any Auckland Council owned land (or interest in land) it owns that is reasonably required for the City Rail Link as required by the project.
It also officially hands to Auckland Transport financial responsibility for the Project, subject to Council funding being approved and available for any local share of the Project.
This support will include to:
- Develop a funding plan (with Auckland Transport) to ensure that the project is adequately funded over time
- Amend or modify relevant Auckland Council documents to reflect Auckland Transport’s financial responsibility for the project (including the Spatial Plan, longterm plan and annual plan.
- Make any Auckland Council owned land (or interest in land) needed for the project available to Auckland Transport.
Essentially it means that despite the Joyce road block and curve ball from Maori about mysterious unseen Taniwha unhappy with having trains riding over it, the Council and Auckland Transport can spend the next 2 years making plans for it in the hope the political climate changes, funding becomes available to do it anyway or a funding compromise is reached that attracts a government buy-in.
It also buys Mayor Brown more time so he can go to the next election and say he is moving ahead with it.
It also subtly reminds Key and Joyce - both of whom have said there is no case right now - that the bodies they set up in their realignment of Auckland local government will not turn over and die just because the Government does not want a project progressed.
Not that it will matter. The Transport Minister has already brushed off the suggestion the Council will do this saying so long as it’s their money, not the Government’s he doesn’t care.
He mightn’t lose any sleep but on this issue many of us do and this is the best approach.
4 Comments
It’s the right thing to do. And I think it’s more than just buying Brown time. As you said Jon, this is what they would have done anyway.
“Always listen to the experts. They will tell you why something can’t be done. Then do it anyway.” [Robert Heinlein]
really, really don’t like the look of that station at all.
These sketches are indicative concepts only for the purposes of the Notice of Requirements documentation. They don’t necessarily represent what the final product will look like
Carl, Alphatron - having worked in consents & construction for years, I can tell you that the people doing the next set of drawings are probably not even going to look at these, and the finished product will look nothing like this.
The only reason these uninspired drawings are a pain is that I would have loved something more evocative, to support the emotional case for the CBD tunnel.