Govt looks to shift logs from road to rail
Logging trucks on southern roads may become a thing of the past as the government announced a $250,000 feasibility study into shifting forestry freight to rail in Southland.
Investment into rail was a major feature in more than $40 million of regional spending announced by Regional Economic Development minister Shane Jones yesterday.
Northland and the East Coast were the big winners from the first tranche of spending with $17.35m heading to Northland and almost $10m to Hawke’s Bay.
Invercargill MP Sarah Dowie said the funding for rail was ‘‘ridiculous’’ while NZ First List MP Mark Patterson described the scheme as ‘‘low hanging fruit’’, but in direct contrast Southern Regional Development Strategy programme director Sarah Hannan said the funding was welcome.
Dowie said the $250,000 being spent on the study was ‘‘ridiculous’’ and should have been spent on current SoRDS projects.
‘‘The Government should be building on and working through the priorities outlined in SoRDS as agreed by the community ... rather than going in a different direction with no applicability to our strategy.’’
Patterson said the rail feasibility study was ‘‘low hanging fruit for Southland’’.
‘‘We would be expecting there will be a much more comprehensive package coming for Southland over time.’’
The study would focus on moving freight and logging traffic onto rail and off of the roads, he said.
Further work was ongoing with the mayoral forum and regional development strategy to identify other potential projects to invest in.
‘‘This is just an initial tranche of projects and certainly I know it’s a sizeable fund and there is a huge amount of projects being offered to it, so it’s just a matter of working through that pipeline.’’
However, Hannan said the announcement was welcomed by her organisation.
‘‘A commitment from central government and the provincial growth fund will be vital to support investment in infrastructure and help us build a thriving and prosperous future for Southland.’’
A combination of local leadership and central government support would help build a strong and resilient local economy, she said.
The news came as National leadership hopeful Simon Bridges visited Southland to meet with business leaders at an Otago Southland Employers Association event.
He was concerned that the regional development fund would become ‘‘a political slush fund’’.
Speaking before yesterday’s funding announcement, he said: ‘‘[Funding] won’t be on the basis of what really stacks up and is good for economies and that’s been worked through with industry and iwi ... it will just be from on a high (saying) ‘we need some votes in this area, we think its fertile ground, chuck them $70m’’’.
Bridges was upbeat before next weeks leadership spill, saying that he thought he had good momentum leading into the secret ballot.
Bill English’s retirement was a loss for the region, he said.
‘‘You’ve lost a real heavyweight in Bill English, someone who loves this area and we can’t replace him in that regard.’’