Transport funding cut for regional council

Greater Wellington Regional Council faces having to hike rates or draw on reserves to fund planned transport investment, after Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency indicated it would not stump up with expected investment.

Council chairman Daran Ponter said the current ballpark increase was 13 per cent – so any extra rise would be on top of that.

The transport agency has told Greater Wellington and other councils nationwide what it is planning to fund in its national threeyear plan and has acknowledged that, in most cases, the amount of funding is less than promised.

Ponter said his council had been given $21 million less than the roughly $570m he had been expecting for projects over the next three years. The shortfall would likely be funded from reserves or rates increases, which the council was working through as part of its Long Term Plan.

However, news of the lower investment has come late in the piece for the council, which intends to sign off on its Long Term Plan by June 29.

‘‘Our programmes totalled $570m for the years 2021-2024, and they have been given a bit of a haircut by $21m – that is 3.9 per cent less than what we asked for.’’

Ponter said Waka Kotahi had given the council an ‘‘expectation’’ there would be more money, but he was recently told by the agency the money would not be forthcoming.

‘‘We put up our best propositions, we got an indication from them about what they will and won’t fund.’’

Ponter said he was still hopeful more investment would be coming from Waka Kotahi following negotiations, but there was the potential for a rates increase if the funding gap could not be bridged.

‘‘We do have the ability to draw on some reserves and put rates up a little bit.’’

Many transport projects are cofunded between councils and Waka Kotahi, with funding levels hashed out in regional land transport plans.

A Waka Kotahi spokesperson said money from the land transport fund – which is financed by revenue collected from fuel taxes and road user charges – was guided by ministers through the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport.

‘‘On May 31, all councils were advised of their indicative funding allocations for local road maintenance, state highway maintenance, public transport and road safety promotion activity classes,’’ the spokesperson said.

Waka Kotahi acknowledged that, in most cases, constraints meant reductions to the amount of funding promised.