Council veto on bus funds

District councillors like a proposed new bus service for Timaru but have declined a $200,000 funding request towards it from Environment Canterbury.

At yesterday’s Timaru District Council infrastructure meeting, councillors expressed support for the proposed service which would operate similar to Uber, where people can access the service with a smartphone app.

However, councillors and mayor Damon Odey resisted an ECan request for $100,000 a year for the next two years to assist with transitional funding.

Odey said the project was exciting, but wanted to see if the NZ Transport Agency could provide funding.

‘‘We need to push hard with NZTA to remind them of the national significance of this, rather than us as a council putting a hand in our pockets.

‘‘I totally support this and think it’s great, we need to push NZTA to stump up with some funding. This is a leading edge project which has implications,’’ Odey said.

Council land transport manager Andrew Dixon proposed the $200,000 come out of the footpath maintenance budget but it did not go down well with councillors.

Cr Steve Wills was worried about what ratepayers would think of them not using the budget for footpath maintenance.

‘‘We have footpaths which are substandard and need to be upgraded. This [bus service] is ECan’s project . . . we should not be dipping into the funds for this initiative.’’

Cr Nigel Bowen said agreeing to the funding could set a precedent.

‘‘The problem with agreeing to this is it would build expectations if we went ahead with it.’’

ECan deputy chairman Peter Scott, of South Canterbury, said he was not too worried about the TDC’s rejection.

‘‘We’re confident that if push comes to shove, [TDC] could come on board. However, both us and the council see this as an opportunity for NZTA.’’

Scott said there had been discussions between ECan and NZTA about the proposal. He hoped there would be some more concrete news from NZTA within the next month. national