One of the greatest robberies (and I do not exaggerate) perpetrated by this government is the theft of money raised locally through the implementation of the 5c/litre regional fuel levy. In Hawkes Bay the amount raised and sitting in the Regional Roading Fund was around $81m. The HB Regional Council had drawn up a regional roading plan that outlined five strategically important roading projects that this money was going to fund.
Purely co-incidently, two of these roads are being built as part of the government’s economic stimulation package, but the others are not. Two of the roads scheduled for a complete upgrade as part of the regional development plan would have had a significant impact on diverting heavy trucks away from the scenic Marine Parade and onto the current back route to the port. The Marine Parade is the jewel in Napier’s tourism crown, and yet amazed tourists – and locals – have their pleasant strolls around the Art Deco icons and earthquake memorials interrupted by thundering trucks on the way to the port. Amazing.
So where has this money gone? From the Regional Roading fund into the National Roading Fund. So money raised in Hawkes Bay from Hawkes Bay residents could well be used to build roads in Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch. If Hawkes Bay is to grow as a region then it needs to ensure that its roading infrastructure is world class. How is this to happen if the government steals our money? We want our money back Mr Joyce.!
You know what really annoys the hell out of me – the people of the Bay are STILL paying this 5c per litre Regional fuel levy.!
PS – there are also rumours that the government is going to close down the Gisborne to Napier rail link. So much for regional development.!
Please tell us how much has actually been spent on roading projects in the region and then we can start to get an idea about this?
In your last sentance you say the government is going to close the Gisborne- Napier rail link. How much needs to be spent to bring it up to standard and how much traffic does this link currently carry? The Napier Gisborne road is awful – but if say the money required for a rail upgrade was diverted into the road then would this not be a much better proposition?
So the local paper is thundering about this ?
The last story about the regional petrol tax was in 2006
“would have had a significant impact on diverting heavy trucks away from the scenic Marine Parade and onto the current back route to the port.” – Rumbling mines, rumbling trucks, less trains
Who would pay to visit that? 
Could we bring a passenger service back to the HB too? Drove Wgtn -Napier last weekend and the road was busy and scary with aggressive and impatient drivers. The railway line which goes beside the road in some parts remained empty. I would have chosen to travel by rail if it was still available.
Hilary, we could also bring back solid gold trains as well; as long as there is a market to pay for it.
The fact there are not these services suggests that there is not a viable market for them.
There was a viable train service for many years and there are still several buses a day. But investment has been in roads not rail, and roads are not required to make a profit for the owners. Apart from a few routes trains have not been considered for their tourism value. When the cost of petrol soars the train will start to look like a very attractive option again.
What regional petrol tax? I thought they all got cancelled?
Stuart
It’s a pity you weren’t in Labour when the regional tax was introduced. You could have driven around the regions in an ‘Axe the tax’ bus.
You better believe that rail link will be closed along with a lot of others in the May Budget, to be followed up by large investment (by NZ standards) in the main lines… It will be a silly purely short term commercial decision and will not take into account, pollution, public safety, required increased regional road investment (which will be required but not forthcoming due to the RoNS), carbon emissions or peak “cheap” oil…
I wish there were a cyber track from Anne to here. Anne come back Spuddy misses you!
judging by letters to the editor in the gisborne herald there is no local support for the line to napier to be scrapped. quite the opposite
the only drivers for this move are Eastland Port / the Eastland Group.
Jarbury,
my thoughts too…
So I think Stuart is refering to the simple ‘R’ funding mechanism (which was introduced under Gosche) with a rise in FED tying money raised to the Regional funding buckets.
But in order for Stuart’s argument to be complete he does need to show the overall expenditure for the region against the overall $ raised for R funds.
Because it’s perfectly legitimate for NZTA to pull N funds out of the area – which I suspect is what’s actually going on. That or the local share isn’t being raised swiftly enough (as is happening all aroudn the country) and so NZTA is playing cashflow games.
Then there’s the added complication that R funding is (and always has been) set to end with it all turning into N funding. And depending on when these projects are supposed to be paid for there may never have been a chance for R funding anyway.
Certainly – need more info to sort out if there really is an issue here.
Isn’t it common for the road tax to be moved from region to region? I mean for decades Aucklander’s paid more into roading than they received back in roading, or is something more going on?
The Napier – Gisborne line only needs a few millon a year spent on it to be viable. At the moment $30 million is being spend on one small project on the road.
I remember a report that came out saying the road need $600 million spent on it to allow it to cope with the expected large traffic increases, but rail only needed $30 million.
Also there is a very large timber mill opening in 2 years that will definitely make the line viable, so even though the line is losing money now it is better to keep it open.