Consistency plea in road funding

Taranaki’s Regional Transport Committee has expressed frustration at changes to road funding criteria, and is calling for consistency.

The Committee has been told that Taranaki programmes and projects previously paid for out of national funds, or “N funds”, must now come out of regional funds, or “R funds”.

The Committee Chairman, Roger Maxwell, says this is not the case in some other regions, and the committee feels this is inconsistent and unfair.

The Government’s funding directive to Taranaki applies to bridge upgrades for safety or seismic purposes, or to allow for heavier vehicles. The Committee had expected these would come out of N funds.

“But now we told that they must be R funded, and that the Government deems them high-priority. That means our priorities for R funds – the Normanby overbridge, the New Plymouth northern outlet and Mokau passing lanes, for example – get pushed down the list, and there is a risk they may not be progressed within the next three years. Funding is very, very tight.

“But in regions where the R funds have already been spent, the Government’s priority projects will come out of N funds. So this region is being penalized.”

R funds are based on a proportion of fuel tax and road user charges and are distributed to regions, where the decisions are made on how they are spent. N funds are nationally contestable, distributed across the country according to where the Government perceives the greatest needs.

The Regional Transport Committee is preparing the next Regional Land Transport Programme, which will list all projects and activities that are proposed for the three years from July 2012, prioritise the major projects and cover all sources of funding – national, regional and local. The programme will also have a 10-year financial forecast.

A draft programme will be adopted in February 2012, before going out for public consultation.

The Regional Transport Committee has members from the region’s four Councils, the New Zealand Transport Agency and a number of stakeholder groups. It is administered by the Taranaki Regional Council.