Mayors call for Transit rethink on North road funding

IMRAN ALI | 19th February 2008

NORTHLAND'S mayors have called for a review of Transit New Zealand's national road funding formula, which they claim fails to consider the cost of roading projects in different areas.

The mayors, Stan Semenoff from Whangarei, Wayne Brown (Far North) and Neil Tiller (Kaipara), met Transport Minister Annette King in Whangarei last week. She promised to bring the Transit board for more talks in the next two months, to discuss work on Northland's State Highway.

Mr Semenoff said the minister was told that applying the same cost-benefit formula to Northland and to an area like Waikato or the South Island was wrong because of several factors such as climate and geography.

Transit draws up a list of priority projects and forwards it to Land Transport NZ for funding which allocates money based on the benefits the projects will bring to the public.

"We struggle to win Transit funds because it applies a national formula to roading subsidies, and we often fail to fit within that formula," Mr Semenoff said.

"Northland's geology, rainfall and cost of building materials are factors which need to be taken into account, but aren't. The South Island has plentiful and cheap river shingle for road building, for example, while the Waikato had stronger soils which required less excavation.

"The roads there also have gentle contours whereas we've got more clay and a different geography," Mr Semenoff said.

Mr Semenoff said the three district councils and the Northland Regional Council were speaking with one voice when asking Transit to look at problems the region faces in securing adequate road funding.

He said Mrs King readily accepted their submissions and it was her suggestion to bring Transit's board to Northland for a meeting involving the mayors and the three district councils' roading staff.

Mr Semenoff said he was confident the case the Northland local bodies would make to the Transit directors would see more money freed up for the region's urgent roading problems.

Infrastructure, or rather lack of it, has been identified as one of the major impediments to Northland's economic progress.