Sign In / Register
The Auckland Council chief executive is not the only one who has been letter writing. Albany Ward councillor John Watson recently wrote to Transport Minister Simeon Brown in response to his statement this month that if Waka Kotahi NZTA recommends tolling, the government would support that user-pays approach.
Waka Kotahi recommended the tolling of the O Mahurangi Penlink road to recover the costs of tolling infrastructure and ongoing road maintenance, and transport minister at the time, Michael Wood, agreed.
After Wood resigned as Minister last year, then opposition transport spokesperson, Brown said he would investigate whether or not that decision could be reversed. Information released under the Official Information Act had revealed that Ministry of Transport officials told Wood that Waka Kotahi’s business case, consultation process and lack of public support, meant the toll proposal failed three of the four statutory tests under the Land Transport Management Act.
Cr Watson opposes the tolling of Penlink and says in light of the government’s recent stated preference for tolling, it was important to point out to the Minister that Penlink was a different case.
His three page letter dated July 19 quotes several passages from the Ministry of Transport’s advice, including that “…evidence in Waka Kotahi’s Tolling Scheme & Business Case Benefit Cost Ratios suggests … society would be worse off if Penlink were tolled.”
“They came to this conclusion because the effects of traffic diversion resulting from tolling would reduce benefits elsewhere in the network including reduced road safety gains, increasing emissions (through greater fuel use) and the net toll revenues being less than the cost of setting up and running the tolling,” Cr Watson says.
“In other words, it would cost more to administer the tolling than would be collected from the tolls.”
The letter also says that when the Labour government made the decision to fund Penlink, in 2022, the key driver was to enable substantial growth in Silverdale and Ōrewa.
“It is this catchment to the west that is the main beneficiary of this project, yet it is Whangaparāoa residents who are being asked to pay a toll,” Cr Watson says.
