A business group representing one of Auckland’s busiest, and most iconic streets, has today blamed a lack of governance at Auckland Transport Board level as the reason behind the increasing dissatisfaction with recent roading projects by the Council CCO..

In a presentation to the Board of Auckland Transport at its monthly meeting today, Dominion Rd Business Association Manager Gary Holmes said that $10’s of millions of dollars had been spent on planning for Dominion Rd over the past 15 years with not one physical, tangible outcome to show for it and called on the Board to direct management to prepare a comprehensive master plan for the corridor.

“Having engaged with Auckland Transport over the past eight years on this project, it is obvious that the various different departments working on projects relating to Dominion Rd are not talking to each other, and that is a failure of governance.

Chris Hammonds, who owns a business on Dominion Rd and has chaired the Association for the past 10 years, detailed a history of the various projects that had been prepared and then shelved for Dominion Rd and said that it was time Auckland Transport really started to listen to and work with the more than 300 businesses on Dominion Rd.

“Restricting and removing carparks only has the effect of pushing people to the multi-national owned shopping malls and it was time Auckland Transport took a holistic approach to its projects. These shopping strips are the heart and soul of the local community”, Mr Hammonds said.

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