My Account
At its final meeting prior to last weekend’s local government election, the Rodney Local Board was given an update on the bus services it was funding with the Transport Targeted Rate.
Two of the services – 126 (Westgate to Albany) and 998 (Wellsford to Warkworth) – were taken over by Auckland Transport (AT) in March when patronage levels showed that they could be run economically.
AT also took over the 128 (Helensville to Hibiscus Coast Station) service last month, agreeing to fund it through to June 2024, with funding from the Climate Action Targeted Rate.
Additionally, in a breakdown of how the targeted rate funds have been allocated or spent on a subdivision-by-subdivision basis, the Board was told that in the Dairy Flat and Kumeu subdivisions, funds were fully spent or allocated.
A total of $695,000 remained in the Wellsford subdivision. However, the approved budget for the Rodney Street footpath project was $3.4 million, which included $3 million from the targeted rate and $400,000 from Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency. The design consultant for the project had signaled that the construction cost might be higher than the provision in the $3.4 million budget. Therefore, AT advised delaying any decisions on the allocation of the remaining budget until the full cost of the project was known.
Warkworth subdivision still had $4,915,000 unallocated, but this was before the Board agreed to spend $2.55 million for an on-demand bus service.
