Kamikaze push for central rail tunnel must now stop

[Statement from David Thornton]

Thursday 14 December 2012

Mayor Brown should now stop spending ratepayers’ funds on a rail tunnel which will not be needed until 2030 – or even later.

Claimed popular support for CRL has not been produced

Mayor Len Brown’s kamikaze push for his central rail tunnel, and the spending of up to half a billion dollars, must now stop – at least for the next 6 -12 years – especially in the light of the Governments re-action to the latest so called business case presented by the Council.

Borrowing now to pay for acquiring property to ‘secure’ the CRL route will tie up funds for many years during which council rates will be used to pay interest and capital re-payments on those borrowings.

Some commentators point to the power of the new Auckland Council to bring huge resources together to enable the CRL to go ahead now. However the key part of those resources is money – money collected in the form of rates. And ratepayers demonstrate on a daily basis their objection to ever-increasing rates – and the questionable projects on which those rates are spent.

The so-called ‘independent’ report from SKM is based on forecasts of employment and population growth in the Auckland CBD, figures produced by the Council, which have been strongly questioned by the Minister of Transport and his professional officials.

The Mayor has consistently claimed that Aucklanders want this rail link – but has never produced credible survey or polls which support his statement.

His most recent claim is based on a Horizon poll which has been widely criticised for being a ‘phone-in’ poll, with those calling in being place in draw for a $1,000 prize.

Such ‘polling’, while probably useful to market new consumer products, is not sufficiently scientific and robust to be used as the basis for spending billions of ratepayers’ dollars.

While the Labour Party has expressed support for the CRL and ‘half-promised’ to proceed with the project if elected, that Party will also have to find sufficient funds to build it – and half of those funds will be expected to come from Auckland ratepayers.

Mayor and Council need to enter genuine consultation with Aucklanders if they really want to build or test popular support for major projects - and the CRL is the biggest current project and the Mayor should make every effort to test the ratepayer’s willingness to pay the cost.

The Council and the Government now need to work together on finding other methods of solving transport and congestion problems – rather than continue this useless battle of wills, facts and opinions about a 3.5km rail tunnel.

ends

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