Time to invest in our city’s ailing infrastructure is now

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is right now, so the Chinese proverb goes. The same could be said for our infrastructure here in Palmerston North. If we had continued to invest in our roads, stormwater and sewerage at the levels they needed for the last 20 years, it would have been much cheaper and we would not need to stress about it now.

Our city leaders have for years deferred this investment, hoping that it will hold out for another election cycle rather than face the wrath of us, the ratepayers. This latest group of elected officials have bravely bitten the bullet and are now donning flak jackets as they confront the reality that our city’s ailing infrastructure needs overhauling right now.

The problem with infrastructure, especially buried beneath the ground, is that we can’t see the value we get out of it. Everyday, almost all of us open a tap, push flush on the toilet and use our roads. Once every fortnight, our plastic recycling gets picked up and the lawns in our local park get mowed. Apart from the increasing number of potholes I ride around daily, everything works as it should, despite the tremendous strain on our system through massive population growth and bigger and more trucks on our roads.

The upcoming rates rise is a perfect storm of factors — lack of historical investment, surging house prices, a global pandemic, inflation, and human resources and materials shortages. It absolutely sucks, but we have to make a decision right now. Do we pay higher rates so that our city continues to be a lovely place to live, or do what we have done for the past 20 years and defer it until it bankrupts our children and the toilets don’t flush?

Queue the complaints about the PNCC wasting our money on art work and cycle lanes and not fixing potholes. I’m not an apologist for our local council — it can be really frustrating working with an organisation that has multiple agendas and moves at the pace of a snail with haemorrhoids.

My forehead is now covered in scar tissue from bashing it against the bureaucratic brick wall. But before you complain about the artwork, if you do your research you will discover that the artwork is an appreciating asset that we can leverage off financially, so it pays for itself and more.

Our cycle lanes are controversial, but we have an obligation to our children’s children to reduce our CO2 emissions and one of the best ways is to get out of our oil-powered cars.

We all created this problem as voters, putting pressure on our council to keep rates artificially low. Being part of a community means we have to contribute, even if we don’t directly benefit.

My kids are too old to enjoy the new splash park at Memorial Park, but I loved driving past on a hot summer’s day and seeing the car park full of people enjoying a free swim. Hopefully it’s built well enough for my future grandchildren to enjoy.