Goff talks rising growth, port proposal

Unparalleled city growth, jampacked park and rides, and Winston Peter’s port proposal - Auckland mayor Phil Goff took on them all in a visit with the North Harbour business community.

Goff addressed members of Business North Harbour on Thursday, with local businesses turning up to hear him speak on issues affecting the community.

Goff was quick to jump on a question about Winston Peters’ port proposal to relocate Auckland’s port to Northland, made earlier in the day.

‘‘[Don’t] talk about what you’re going to do with our port. It belongs to the Auckland ratepayer, it doesn’t belong to Government,’’ he said.

‘‘You want to change the location of the port, you will negotiate with us around it.’’

Goff agreed the port did need to be moved though, tossing around Kaiaua in the Hauraki Gulf as a potential site.

Auckland Council secured $900 million in infrastructure funding from the Government in July, he said, with $300m of that going to the new home builds in Whenuapai and Red Hills.

But more was needed, with Statistics New Zealand figures showing 50,000 people coming into the city over the past 12 months.

‘‘We have never grown at that rate in the history of the city,’’ Goff said. ‘‘Growth is good, I’m not complaining about growth, but it comes with challenges.’’

Congestion on the city’s roads contributed to a $2 billion loss in productivity in the last year.

And while 53 per cent of North Shore residents are now opting to take public transport into the CBD, there were still issues that needed addressing.

One Goff mentioned was inadequate park-and-ride services. A total $26.5m would be put into creating an addition 1350 bays on the North Shore over the next five years.

That number was too small, he admitted, but the $20,000 cost of each bay was exorbitant.

‘‘If you want more park and rides, you’d have to think about charging for the parking side of it,’’ he said.

‘‘If you make it too hard on the parking side of it, people will think, ‘well, it’s too expensive, we’ll go back to using the car’.’’

There were no ‘‘silver bullet solutions’’, Goff said.

Current transport projects for the North Shore - including Penlink and the link from Albany to Orewa - amount to $840m worth of infrastructure.

SUPPLIED Phil Goff speaks to Business North Harbour on infrastructure challenges.