MEDIA RELEASE
 
 
Push to get Rotorua more transport funding

For immediate release: Friday 4 September 2009
 
BAY of Plenty Regional Transport Committee (RTC) will ask the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) to review its recent decision not to fund the investigation and design work for the Rotorua Eastern Arterial.
 
The request follows last week’s Central Government’s funding announcement of its National Land Transport Programme (NLTP), which did not include the Rotorua Eastern Arterial, despite the RTC ranking it in the top five pieces of work that it wanted funded.
 
The NLTP announced a $495 million funding package for the Bay of Plenty, RTC Chair Jane Nees said this represented a 29 percentage increase for the region in land transport funding during the next three years.
 
“While we’re pleased that the NLTP prioritisation process has recognised that the Bay of Plenty region and the Port of Tauranga form a major growth engine for New Zealand, we needed to question why the Rotorua Eastern Link was not also allocated priority funding given its potential also to bring economic growth to the region,” said Mrs Nees.
 
“We have requested the NZTA revisit its decision on the Rotorua Eastern Arterial with the view of allocating $2.5 million towards the investigation and design phases of this vital economic transport link for the Rotorua community.”
 
Mrs Nees said that the Committee had worked extremely well as a group to establish the priorities for the region, so it was important to question why a key regional priority had not been included in the national programme.
 
“We’re aware that the process of bringing all the regional transport programmes together into one national list has been a difficult task, but we need to ensure we have the right priorities at national level to encourage growth and economic sustainability throughout our region,” Mrs Nees said.
 
ENDS
 

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