Transport plan could be stalled on road to nowhere as funding dries up

Friday, 19 March 2021

There's still no smooth sailing for the Nelson Future Access project, with the transport agency signalling the possibility of no extra funding for it for the next ten years.

A long-running, controversial transport project in Nelson may be stalled because of a lack of funding.

Waka Kotahi (NZTA) signalled in December last year that delays in “technical assessments” for the Nelson Future Access detailed business case would throw the project out of alignment with the Nelson City Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP) process.

The latest information in the council’s draft LTP consultation documents this week indicates that regardless of the progression of the business case, it is “possible that over the next 10 years Nelson will not see any additional funding to support the delivery/outcomes of the final business case”.

Mayor Rachel Reese told councilors at its LTP meeting on Thursday there had been “quite a discussion with Audit [New Zealand] around these pages” of the consultation document.

Mayor Rachel Reese said Audit New Zealand wanted the council's consultation document to “clearly articulate the environment” that the council was operating in, with delays from Waka Kotahi and potentially no further funding.

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“There have been significant delays in terms of Waka Kotahi’s delivery of this project, they [Audit NZ] wanted us to be clear about that,” she said.

She said that Waka Kotahi had “significant programmes that are already underway … around New Zealand”, which would take up “more than 90 per cent of the anticipated revenue from the national land transport fund”.

Waka Kotahi top of the south director of regional relationships Emma Speight said on Friday that the Nelson project would be “prioritised on a national basis once the business case is complete”.

“While Waka Kotahi has been communicating with councils about current NLTP (National Land Transport Programme) funding restraints, this does not mean that this project will not receive funding. Rather, following the completion of a successful business case the project will go to both Nelson City Council and Waka Kotahi for endorsement later this year and will then be considered for funding from the NLTP.”

She said the project was “progressing at a steady pace”, and the detailed business case was due to be completed by the end of the third quarter of 2021.

“We expect to provide a public update to council in May.”

Nelson Council chief executive Pat Dougherty made the case that, since the detailed business case was started in 2018, it was “not the 2015 project”.

Should the project fail to attract NLTP funding, it would effectively leave the detailed business case dormant for a decade.

Reese said at the meeting that it would be “unaffordable for Nelson to undertake this work without significant Waka Kotahi funding”.

“If Waka Kotahi want to achieve the outcomes of the National Policy Statement in this region, we’re going to need some funding from them.”

Since the council was unable to include any specifics from the future access business case in its LTP consultation, instead there is “placeholder funding” of $30.2 million over the next 10 years “aimed at improving safety and encouraging active travel”, wording which group manager of infrastructure Alec Louverdis said covered “virtually everything” that the council might do to improve the road.

The $30.2m budget included a 51 per cent subsidy ($15.4m) from Waka Kotahi for local government work on transport.

Councillor Matt Lawrey wanted it noted in the consultation document that “the whole body of work” was started in 2015, referring to the initial preliminary business case.

“This study started in 2015, and I believe millions of dollars have been spent, and still we find ourselves in this position where we don’t know what’s happening and we’re having to put in our LTP document that maybe, 10 years, we may not see any action. I think it’s really important for people who read this to understand the context.”

Council chief executive Pat Dougherty made the distinction that the detailed business case was started in 2018.

“There was a preliminary business case, this project is the detailed business case, and that started after I arrived. This started in 2018 … so no, this is not the 2015 project.”

Consultation on the LTP opens on Monday next week.