PRESS RELEASE
5 MARCH 2003

Wellington’s Roading Problems – Time For Action!
WELLINGTON LAND TRANSPORT ACTION GROUP FORMED

It’s overdue! - the Wellington Region now needs an unequivocal commitment from Central and Local Government to fund and complete Wellington’s transport projects.

This was the conclusion reached by a range of transport-focused groups who met this morning to form a Wellington Regional Transport Action Group. The Group was prompted by intense frustration at the lack of progress in resolving roading and transport solutions in the region.

This new group comprises both business and road user organizations. The group includes the Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Employers and Manufacturers Association (Central), Automobile Association (Wellington), Wellington Road Transport Association, and the New Zealand Taxi Federation.

“We’re here to intensify lobbying efforts on Central and Local Government” say Chamber of Commerce Vice President Simon Arnold and EMA Wellington Chair Dalton Kelly.

“Wellington and the wider region are experiencing slow strangulation and stunted economic growth as a direct result of big transport bottlenecks.”

“We need to see action now on critical and long-overdue roading projects in the Wellington region – the Inner-City Bypass, Transmission Gully and the Kapiti Western Link are only three of the biggest and longest-delayed examples”

Adds AA (Wellington) representative Pam Oughton, “the Inner City Bypass has been planned for over forty years. Greater Wellington motorists are continually frustrated at growing traffic jams”.

The group established today will highlight economic data that will show clearly why action on road transport for Wellington is now a must.

“We have agreed to finalise an action plan going forward” say Mr Kelly and Mr Arnold.

“We are determined to ensure that Central and Local Government opinion-formers and decision-makers are left in no doubt about our region’s pressing land transport needs”

ENDS

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