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Three groups representing rural Rodney joined forces last month to take local roading issues to Auckland Transport’s (AT) board of directors.
Landowners and Contractors Association chair Brian Mason, Northern Action Group’s Bill Foster and Rodney Community Voices’ Glen Ashton, together with Rodney Local Board member Colin Smith, put forward proposals they claim would see Rodney getting far more roading bang for its buck.
They told the board that rural roads were not being maintained and management needed to change to bring in a more effective back-to-basics approach.
“We have horror stories of roads, drains, culverts and overland flow paths, along with obviously wasted resources in attempts to respond to complaints and remedy problems,” Mason said.
“Clearly the present maintenance arrangement isn’t providing ‘bang for buck’, leaving affected ratepayers deeply aggrieved.”
He put forward three proposals to improve the situation – using local contractors to carry out maintenance, bringing back a ‘clerk of works’ to oversee jobs, and increasing seal extensions to metal roads.
“Really, what we are advocating here is a return to basics: competent, trained workers and operators; cost effective maintenance; job quality and standards oversight; full accountability; and effective local liaison,” Mason told the board.
He added that AT’s Unsealed Road Improvement Programme (URIP) should not include roads that had deteriorated due to lack of proper maintenance, as was currently the case, but should just be used for sealing metal roads.
“If unsealed roads are maintained properly, the URIP can be only for seal extensions,” he said.
Mason said that the current three-year URIP had 25 projects that were not costed and had no project timings, so proposed formalising, assessing and prioritising the programme in much more detail as part of the 10-year Regional Land Transport Programme (RLTP).
AT board chair Wayne Donnelly, a former chief executive of Rodney District Council and a civil engineer, said he understood rural Rodney had been treated badly, and said the presentation was timely, as the RLTP was currently being ‘refreshed’.
After the meeting, Ashton said the groups intended to keep communicating with AT, council and the Mayor, as well as Councillor Greg Sayers and the Rodney Local Board, to get fair rural road maintenance and sealing outcomes for ratepayers.
“Rural Rodney has been neglected for 13 years under the Supercity, yet makes up 40 per cent of the land area, contributes $50 million in rates per annum and produces extensive agriculture and horticulture product for local and export markets,” he said. “Our most important requirement is decent roads to connect our production and communities.”
