Sealing Ahuroa Road – Update from Glen Ashton

Hi all,

AT have confirmed the following timetable for sealing Ahuroa Road:

  • Presently under preliminary investigation.
  • March 2019 – Design phase
  • November 2019 to 2021 Construction phase
    Length 8.5 Km (i.e. fully sealed).

Expectation that at $5 million per annum there will be enough budget.

I am still communicating with the powers to be on why they are not allocating more of our money on road sealing. Shane Ellison the CEO of AT has admitted that is has been diverted into higher priority projects like the City Rail Link. AT reduced what seemed like a $12.1 million allocation (the Mayor announced $121 million over 10 years) to $4.7 million this year and $5 million next year. It appears that AT are “uncontrolled” and are to blame for the lack of road sealing progress. Either the Mayor and Auckland Council have lost control of AT or they are both in cohorts misleading the Rodney Rural public.

Unfortunately, unless we do something about it, our side roads will not be sealed within our lifetime, but downtown Auckland will be fabulous! Think about it every time you fill up with gas with the RFT or paying the new Local Target Transport Rate. Us rural people are being screwed by Auckland Council and Auckland Transport.

I will give a more informed update shortly.

Glen
p.s. Only 8.7 Km of new seal since 9 years in Super City.

Ahuroa – Road sealing budget update – Important news.

An update from Glen Ashton:

I was very confused over the recent Auckland Council (AC) and Rodney Local Board (RLB) announcements with regards sealing our metal roads and have spent the last month investigating and emailing the powers to be.

  1. Araparera Forestry Trust fund – For those new, this is an old northern Rodney target rate that was paid into a pine forest venture with the idea that profits would be spent on sealing the roads. After much investigation by Greg Sayers and Colin Smith they have found $2.8 million that is available and the RLB have selected some minor roads from the priority list to be sealed.
  2. Local Transport Target Rate – This is the $150.00 on your rates. When consulted with the public this included $13.5 million to be spent on road sealing over ten years. At the last minute the Local Board altered the funding statement and excluded road sealing and essentially only benefitting the urban town centres with bus services, footpaths and park n rides. The rural community were ignored. This was passed by vote 6 to 3. Our local members Beth Houlbrooke and Tessa Berger voted yes.
  3. Regional Fuel Tax – This is the extra 11.5 cents per litre for gas. The Mayor Phil Goff made the announcement that $121 million would be spent on road sealing over the next decade. That was made up of $36 million from General rates and $85 million from the RFT. However, it is Auckland Transport (AT) that budget the year on year allocation and have allocated only $3.1m + $1.6m = $4.7m for 2018/19 and only slightly more for 2019/20. The bulk of the amount is “promised” in the later 4 years. Apparently, there are “other” higher priority projects in the Super City.

Rural Rodney has been badly treated. Greg Sayers has been very active on our behalf as have Local Board members Colin Smith, Alison Roe and Brenda Steele. The rest of the Local Board are working against us.

As for Ahuroa Road sealing; it is 2nd on the priority list and is being designed for full length sealing. Unfortunately, there will not be enough funds for at least two years to begin the project. As for the other Ahuroa roads it will be more than a lifetime wait?

Since we have been in the Super City (9 years), AC / AT have only sealed 9 kilometres. Other Rodney rural communities are also upset, and I expect a collective reaction against AC / AT is eminent.

This is an abridged version of conversations and emails, contact me if you want to know more.

[email protected]

Ahuroa Road – (and other potholed roads)

Merry Christmas,

As you all have seen yet again our roads are in a very poor state and need urgent attention. I am most concerned that there will be a serious incident in the near future as many drivers are using all the road to avoid potholes and corrugations. I ask that then when you have some time please log onto the AT website and submit a report.

https://at.govt.nz/about-us/contact-us/report-a-problem/

Thank you, have a merry and safe Christmas.

Regards,
Mike Conner

Rodney roads, a targeted rate? Have your say.

Who isn’t sick of unsealed roads? – HAVE YOUR SAY on our solution…

Your Local Board wants to bring forward spending on transport infrastructure such as road sealing.


There are over 678km’s of unsealed road in Rodney and this will cost over $350 million to seal, or put another way, $16,000 per property based on 22,000 rateable properties in Rodney. We got $10 million extra for road sealing (three roads) but that money is finished and if we’re not going back to a million a year we need to come up with a way of funding this

* If the Local Board gets a targeted rate and chips in some money I believe there is a good chance we could get a top up from Auckland Transport.

We are proposing a Rodney Ward only Targeted Rate

** that will contribute towards more road sealing. The targeted rate would also be used to contribute towards a Train to Huapai and Park’n’Rides in Rodney.

If you want to support speeding up road sealing please take a few minutes to complete an online feedback form, if we don’t get the support it won’t happen!

http://shapeauckland.co.nz/consultations/draft-rodney-local-board-plan-2017/

You have until THIS THURSDAY to make a submission, so don’t delay!

*Franklin had a targeted rate and now most of their roads are sealed, we need to do the same thing because doing nothing won’t see any significant progress. A local targeted rate would make a strong political argument for a funding top up from Auckland Transport. It won’t be a quick solution because of the scale of the problem but it would be better than hoping we will get funding every three years.

** The targeted rate would be used to provide part funding for three major initiatives across Rodney, Trains to Huapai, Park’n’Rides and Road Sealing. By putting in place a long term targeted rate we can share the cost burden across the limited rating base (22,000 properties in Rodney).

You are currently paying a targeted transport rate for the City Rail Link that finishes in 2018, we would look to continue this over but just have the money spent in Rodney. If this initiative is supported we would come back to the public in 2018 will detailed proposals on what the money would be spent on, for how long and how much for further consultation. If this initiative isn’t supported we won’t take this further and these projects will have to wait for funding to become available and at this point that is five to ten years away.

Originally posted by Phelan Pirrie on Facebook.