Subscribe to RSSNot Everyone’s Getting Road Handouts
And here we are sometimes assuming that the government is tossing money at every roading programme any council is asking for.
Not so. Interesting to see Kaipara District Council’s annual plan released today and saying that their “rug pulled from under our feet by Central Government, through the actions of New Zealand Transport Agency, and the brakes put on our planned roading programme.”
The district’s mayor, Neil Tiller warns his district will “go backwards.”
“In 2009 Council formulated a roading proposal for sealing projects and preventative maintenance. However Central Government, through NZ Transport Agency, has reduced the budgeted funding for Council’s roading by $5.5million, from a budgeted $23million to $17.5million.
“That is $5.5million less for Council to spend on developing and maintaining our districts road network. This is going to have a major impact on the Kaipara community. The brunt of the impact will be on the seal extension programme and preventative maintenance.
Kaipara’s roads will go backwards and Kaipara’s social and economic wellbeing will be hit hard.”
Northland MP’s are National’s John Carter and Hone Harawira is member for Te Tai Tokerau (Maori Party).
3 Comments
I don’t think anyone has been thinking money is being thrown at roads all over the place, as the biggest criticism of National’s State Highway promotions by local governments up and down the country has been that it is at the expense of funding for local roads, PT and walking/cycling initiatives. It’s just the likes of us PT fans have ignored the similar plight of local road funding.
And for good reason, because our local roads are still in better shape than our PT!
Also, it is easy for Wellington to blame local Councils for degraded road conditions, because the average punter won’t get the fact that his Council failing to keep the road outside his house has anything to do with Welly. To a degree, its a low-risk strategy.
Michael Laws complains about this a lot too…