Good transport management earns praise from NZTA and maximises funding
13 October 2009
Tasman District Council has come in for praise recently from Dr. Deborah Hume, Regional Director at the NZ Transport Agency who said that Tasman District Council’s management of its budgets and roading programme is ‘one of the best in the country’ at a recent Road Transport Committee meeting. The three Councils, Tasman, Nelson and Marlborough have an active working relationship to address traffic matters though the Top of the South Liaison Committee.
Tasman District Council has over 1660km of roads under its responsibility with most funding coming jointly from the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Tasman District ratepayers.
Deborah Hume’s comments came on the back of a recent NZTA announcement that it had reallocated its old R (regional) and N (national) funding structure. R funding would now be required to be used first before any N funding would be available for capital projects. Councils who have not committed their R funding would now struggle to have it spent on local projects that are not of a high national priority.
Tasman District Council was given $23m in R funding to assist it in promoting regionally strategic road transport projects, which it allocated to fund almost 80% of the Ruby Bay bypass.
The new process being used by the NZTA puts the focus back on road projects that address severe congestion, offer improved efficiency and provide economic gains. Councils who have unallocated R funding will now be required to use that money on projects that meet the new national criteria before the NZTA spend any available N funds.
Through Councils good management of its funding Tasman District will benefit from 100% of the R funding given to it, and will also receive N funding from the NZTA for any new work, such as the projects specified in the Ten Year Plan.
Speaking on behalf of Council Gary Clark, Transportation Manger, said; “ The changes that the NZTA have brought in recently regarding funding have meant a move away from the old system that enabled us to spend R funding on projects that had less tangible benefits to the region, but which we all knew were warranted and would benefit residents and visitors alike. The new system means we have to now focus on those projects that have a much more demonstrable benefit with regard to congestion reduction or economic gains. I think that it’s testament to the way Tasman District Council has managed its priorities with regards to roading that we were able to capitalise on the R funding whilst it was available and Deborah Hume’s recent words of praise are great to hear.” Gary continued ‘There are still many challenges that we face when it comes to roading in Tasman, a point that was highlighted recently in our 2009 residents survey. We have a lot of roads in our district, especially when you consider the number of residents that live here, and many of them are low use but vital for connecting rural communities and townships. The challenge we face going forward is how best to spend the funding we have to ensure the maximum amount of benefit for all of our ratepayers.”
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