MEDIA RELEASE

LGNZ calls on government to remember local roads

26 July 2011

The Government needs to take due account of the contribution local roads make to New Zealand’s economic growth and productivity says Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ).

This statement follows release today of the Government’s Policy Statement on Land Transport Funding 2012/13 to 2021/22 (GPS 2012.)

“Local roads, owned and managed by councils, make up 88 per cent of New Zealand’s road network and provide essential connections to our rural and provincial hinterlands.

“The government’s decision to target investment at high volume highways has the potential to under-rate the needs of the productive sectors that generate the bulk of this country’s wealth,” said LGNZ President Lawrence Yule.

Funding for the construction of new roads and the maintenance of local roads is administered through the National Land Transport Programme and is primarily generated from the petrol excise tax and road user charges.

LGNZ believes the fund is a shared revenue between local and central government.

In order to finance the government’s ambitious investment programme, better value for money is being sought across all categories of expenditure. The newly created Road Maintenance Task Force is welcomed as a way of identifying whether potential savings exist in local road maintenance.

Local government looks forward to contributing as a member of the Task Force says Mr Yule. However, if the Taskforce cannot find the assumed efficiencies the Government is looking for LGNZ expects the assumptions made in the GPS to be revisited.

ENDS

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