Increasing numbers of cars on Rodney’s 600km of unsealed roads will lead to further degradation of the roads, silt run-off into waterways, more complaints about health issues and possibly more accidents, unless more cash can be found to solve Rodney’s transport woes.

That’s the view of Rodney Local Board chair Beth Houlbrooke, commenting on the board’s draft plan that seeks local views on a targeted rate to fund transport improvements.

“Sadly, I don’t see any extra funding being applied to road sealing other than at the current rate of $3.3 million a year under the current Mayor,” she said.

“We have to get inventive either by finding a way to make the current rate of funding go further or by looking for ways to raise the funds locally.”

In addition to road sealing, other projects that might benefit from a targeted rate include the building of park-and-ride facilities in Warkworth and Kumeu, improved public transport and a possible train shuttle service between Henderson and Huapai, where some of the required infrastructure already exists.

Ms Houlbrooke says the cost of all these projects would run into hundreds of millions of dollars so it would not be expected they could be attempted all at once or be fully funded by a targeted rate.

Rather, targeted rate money would be allocated to various stages of each project over time.

“In my view, households would likely only bear a maximum of about $200 additional on their rates, and only if they could see exactly what they were getting for them. We would present a range of options to people to give them an idea as to what could be achieved with different levels of targeted rate,” Ms Houlbrooke said.

She suggested a targeted rate in Rodney might well be preferable to paying the Council’s current transport levy of $114 a year because of cynicism this levy was largely funding projects outside of Rodney.

“If we were to replace it with a targeted rate, that people knew was coming back to Rodney, that might be more palatable,” she said.

Council’s transport levy is due to expire in June 2018.

The current public consultation aims to seek the community’s general views on the prospect of a targeted rate. If there is firm support for such a rate, the Local Board would set out more detailed proposals in its next annual plan consultation. This would include details of the cash involved and the projects and services that would be the focus of the targeted rate.

Ms Houlbrooke said in an ideal world, targeted rates would not be necessary, but ratepayers and the Mayor wanted general rates held as low as possible.

“At least with a targeted rate, ratepayers’ money is ring-fenced for a particular project and in a defined area, so there is more visibility around where the rates are being spent,” she said.

Other board members’ views

Views from Rodney Local Board members Allison Roe, Brenda Steele and Cameron Brewer were also sought, but were not received before going to press.

Brent Bailey

“Rodney faces historic deficits after decades of underfunding. Urban Auckland simply doesn’t understand our situation and is disinclined to assist us. I believe that by demonstrating that we are prepared to pay a little extra locally to accelerate progress in addressing these needs over time, we may get better support from the rest of the city for these projects.”

Phelan Pirrie

“I know there will be people who say we are not getting our rates spent back in Rodney. The information I have seen doesn’t show this. In fact, we are getting more than our fair share. A targeted rate would provide extra funds to bring forward some of these transport solutions. One of the reasons we are looking at a targeted rate for road sealing is that many years ago Franklin Council did just this and most of their roads are sealed now. In Rodney that never happened, so there’s been little progress.”

Tessa Berger

“With regards to a targeted rate I acknowledge that it’s a big ask, given there is already a perception that rural residents are paying for services predominately used by those residing in urban Auckland. Having said that, Rodney is currently facing a number of transport issues that with current levels of regional investment will likely take many years to address. I would support a discussion around a park-and-ride facility in Warkworth. Both economically and environmentally it makes sense to move away from the same old, same old car-centric urban design.”

Colin Smith

“In my experience, targeted rates never achieve what they are supposed to. They disappear into the general rate and nobody knows what happens to the money. Furthermore, targeted rates are not necessary for roading. The monies that are currently allocated under maintenance for unsealed roading is more than enough, if we got rid of the preferred contractor system and instead treated all contractors on an equal footing. This would introduce more competition and thereby reduce costs.”

Louise Johnston

“I think a targeted rate is very difficult in Rodney. We have a huge land mass but a relatively small population. Therefore, a targeted transport rate will not raise much revenue and needs to cover a massive area. None of the proposed transport improvements come cheap.”