No soft chiding
No soft chiding of the Government by our regional leaders, please.
When Taranaki’s three mayors and regional council chair sent their ‘‘Letter to Wellington’’ and reported on progress on projects in the region, they said, regarding the Bell Block to Waitara safety improvements: ‘‘We welcome the announcement of $29 million funding to start this project and look forward to seeing progress.’’
For goodness’ sake! The funding was announced nearly two years ago when Andrew Little and Phil Twyford made a lightning visit to Taranaki. But since then we’ve seen zero progress and nothing but stalling as the Government syphons off Taranaki’s roading money to spend on Auckland light rail. I hear the project won’t start for another two years. And in the meantime we’ve recently had another fatality on what is called a ‘‘killer highway’’, with 15 fatalities in the last decade. Please speak up more strongly to see this incredibly dangerous piece of highway sorted soon.
And don’t you remember? The previous Government funded $3.4 million to the Taranaki Crossing in Budget 2017, which is three-and-a-half years ago, so I don’t think you could claim funding was only committed to at the end of last year and it’s ‘‘progressing well’’, especially when your own Tapuae Roa steering group wrote to the Government in April 2019 saying: ‘‘The Steering Group wishes to share their dismay at the lack of progress on the Taranaki Crossing project.’’
Please find out where the first $3.4 million has gone to.
As our regional leaders, please lead. Jonathan Young, New Plymouth MP