Campaigners celebrate a win

State Highway 2 campaigners are celebrating after local transport decision-makers backed their battle to fix the road.

Projects to improve or build bypasses around SH2 north of Tauranga received top billings on a revised highway funding priority list agreed by a Bay of Plenty transport subcommittee.

Before the public had their say, the draft Regional Land Transport Plan priority list had zero SH2-related projects in the top five.

Katikati Urban (bypass) has been moved from 15 to five on the priority list.

Fix The Bloody Road campaigners said they could not have asked for a better result. Spokesman Andrew Hollis said the subcommittee’s backing felt like a victory but it was not the end of the issue.

“It’s proof that getting a good team together behind a good cause . . . can really get things done.

“But the fight’s not over yet. The decision comes down to the NZ Transport Agency, and they have the whole of New Zealand to plan for. We don’t know whether we are on NZTA’s priority list or not.”

He had, however, taken heart from a letter Transport Minister Phil Twyford sent to the regional council in which he said he was “committed to addressing State Highway 2”.

Bay of Plenty regional councillor Stuart Crosby, chairman of the subcommittee that revised the priority list, said the priorities sent a clear message.

“We can’t let State Highway 2 languish any longer.”

He said the subcommittee’s recommended changes would go before the full Regional Transport Committee at ameeting on June 15 before the plan could be ratified by the full council.

The final plan was due to be sent to Wellington by the end of June, where it will inform NZ Transport Agency decisions about how to divvy up funding from the National Land Transport Fund.