News Release 

Friday 28 August 2009 

Councillor slams NZTA’s failure to fund eastern arterial as ‘a kick in the guts’ for Rotorua
 

ROTORUA 28.08.09: The New Zealand Transport Agency’s announcement that there is no funding committed in its National Land Transport Programme (2009-12) to kick start Rotorua’s vital eastern arterial route has been described as a bombshell and a major disappointment.

RDC councillor Glenys Searancke, the council’s Works Committee chair and representative on the Bay of Plenty’s Regional Transport Committee, says it’s a “kick in the guts for the Rotorua community”.

“This government promised to fund serious transport related projects if they will ‘increase productivity and stimulate economic growth for the benefit of all New Zealanders’.

“Those are the words of NZTA’s chairman Brian Roche, who also promised a ‘focus on supporting economic activity and employment throughout New Zealand.’

“NZTA also claims that their ‘number one priority is increasing economic growth and productivity.’

“However those words sound pretty hollow today as Rotorua has been effectively snubbed in the latest round of funding announcements,” said Mrs Searancke.

“The eastern arterial roading project was put forward to NZTA by our Regional Transport Committee as one of the top three priority projects in the whole of the region. But NZTA has ignored that recommendation and they’ve ignored the government’s promise to support communities like ours that are getting off their butts and making things happen.

“With Rotorua on the brink of becoming the country’s newest international airport, the eastern arterial has become more important than ever. This road is already one of the heaviest traffic routes in the entire region and it will become increasingly more congested and less safe unless something is done very soon.

“We’re disappointed and extremely angry at NZTA’s failure to understand the importance of this project to the future economic development and growth of Rotorua.

“I have never felt so let down in all my years of involvement with local government.”

Mrs Searancke acknowledged NZTA’s funding commitment to a number of other projects that will benefit Rotorua and said she was pleased these programmes could proceed.

However she said she remained very disappointed that the district’s number one roading priority, a vital project for Rotorua’s economic growth, had not made NZTA’s list of approved funding programmes.

“We can’t afford to take this laying down. We need to be in Wellington knocking on doors and making sure that NZTA, the transport minister and the prime minister are left in no doubt what Rotorua feels about this. And we expect all our local MPs to join forces with us and support our stand for the government to rethink this.

“Rotorua’s eastern arterial project must be funded and it must be funded soon. Our community deserves better than this. We will hold this government accountable for the dire consequences of their failure to fund one of Rotorua’s most important roading projects in decades.

[ENDS]

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