November 16, 2006

Waterfront Stadium bad news for the environment and motorists

"The proposed Auckland waterfront stadium is bad news for motorists because it will massively disrupt the flow of vehicles into New Zealand and increase costs", the chief executives of the Independent Motor Vehicle Dealers Association (IMVDA) and the Motor Industry Association (MIA), David Vinsen and Perry Kerr said in a joint statement today.

"Car buyers could expect to pay hundreds of dollars more a vehicle if the waterfront stadium proceeds, because of the disruption to the trade and increased transport costs. It will probably also result in delays for buyers.

"In a typical year around 150,000 new and used vehicles are discharged onto wharves at Ports of Auckland for processing by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, before being trucked to a compliance workshop or new vehicle storage facility. Usually, the vehicles only stay on the wharves for a short time but in some cases, where extra cleaning is required, it can be up to five days. The wharf space is essential for the vehicle imports and good biosecurity practice.

"If the waterfront stadium goes ahead, once piling starts next May as proposed, the wharves will be unavailable for vehicle imports. We cannot see how car imports can be imported at current volumes through the Ports of Auckland during the construction phase of the stadium, and possibly not even afterwards.

"Given a few years Ports of Auckland could probably develop facilities on other wharves, but this cannot be done prior to the scheduled start of piling which is May 2007. If the vehicles cannot pass through the Auckland port, importers and shipping lines will have to consider other options such as North Port near the Marsden Point refinery and the Port of Tauranga.

"Both of these options would involve up to 40,000 additional large truck movements each year as the vehicles are brought mostly into Auckland. The impact on the roading system would be major and would do nothing for the Government's goal of lowering carbon emissions".

Ends

© Scoop Media