Viewpoint – Keeping Kiwis moving

The issues most commonly raised with me in Warkworth and surrounding areas are road-related. I’ve written here before about the need to accelerate infrastructure investment to provide better options and routes for local commuters but in this edition of Mahurangi Matters I’m taking a slightly different tack.

You may have heard of government proposals to reduce speed limits for areas currently at a maximum of 100km/h to 80km/h in the upper North Island. Obviously there’s always a trade-off between safety and efficiency of movement, so that’s understandable as far as it goes. The bigger picture, however, is that Kiwis are going to need to spend longer getting from A to B to cover for a lack of investment in improving the roads themselves.

Readers of this fine publication will know for themselves, all too well, that our roads are in desperate need of maintenance and repair. Proposals to reduce speed to reduce spend represent a bandaid strategy for the issues that continue to brew underneath. Either that, or there’s a conscious strategy to move Kiwis from the private motor vehicle into public transport. In areas of the right population density and geography, such as Auckland’s CBD, this makes a certain amount of sense. But not in the rural north of Auckland.

National has recently started a petition against blanket speed reductions in Northland. You can find this on my “Chris Penk” facebook page. We recognise that road safety is important but we also need to ensure that Kiwis can get around the country quickly.

Slower movement and lower productivity leads to increases to the costs of moving goods and services, when we already have a cost of living crisis. As your local MP, my perspective is that we need to focus on improving the quality of the roads, fix dangerous intersections and upgrade roads right now, so that you’re not spending more of your time just getting from A to B.

On a related note, the government recently announced that it would be providing a considerable sum of money for infrastructure to support housing growth in other areas of Auckland. I was pleased to hear this (credit where due and all that) from the perspective that it’s good to have official acknowledgement of the need for infrastructure to support population growth.

That said, where the development has already taken place – or is locked in – we still have problems. Warkworth and surrounding areas would be a classic example. We need to continue asking central government decision-makers to catch up and keep up here.

And in a year where local government budgets will come under pressure, and Auckland Council elections are due, we also need to be robust but reasonable in highlighting the needs of the north. What interesting times we live in, as the old curse would have it!