Nelson too advanced for Model Communities funding

There was disappointment in Nelson City Council today with the news that Nelson had missed out on the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) Model Communities trial funding. The initial $7.3M two-year development fund has been allocated to Hastings and New Plymouth.

Nelson City Council’s Chief Executive Keith Marshall talks of the decision.

“Disappointed is probably a little mild for how we are feeling about the news. Nelson’s case was incredibly strong across all the NZTA indicators. Our cycleway and walking networks are second to none, we have award-winning safety and education schemes and we lead national biking and walking stats. Nelson has shown great commitment to the model community ideology and I’ve no doubt we will continue to be held up as an example of best practise. Our progress seems to have counted against us with NZTA telling me that they chose communities that were less advanced in order to ensure they get the biggest lift in improvement.”

“However, we have huge, rising support for walking and biking in Nelson and the safety of our active transport network for biking and walking will continue to be a high priority for development. We just won’t get to progress quite as fast. We continue to hold out hope for a successful outcome to the Cycle Trails application. ”