8 April 2002

Wellingtonians Must Be Consultated In Transport Priorities

Green Transport spokesperson Sue Kedgley is calling on the Wellington Regional Council to undertake a one month consultation process with Wellingtonians before finalising its top 10 transport priorities for Wellington.

Transit is seeking submissions from stakeholders to help it decide on its priorities for its 2002/3 State Highway programme, and the Wellington Regional Land Transport Strategy agreed last week on what it considers are Wellington's top ten priorities.

"I am astonished that the Wellington Regional Council would decide on something as significant as the transport priorities for Wellington without any consultation with the people of the area," she said.

Ms Kedgley said she was particularly astonished at the committee's decision to give the Inner City Bypass the number two priority for Wellington.

"Getting to a traffic jam at the Basin Reserve 90 seconds faster seems to be a ridiculous candidate for the number two transport priority for the Wellington region," she said.

Ms Kedgley said surveys had consistently shown that Wellingtonians were deeply divided over the bypass and given this she could not understand how it could rank as Wellington's number two transport issue.

Ms Kedgley said the Government's new funding priorities were for projects which reduced severe traffic congestion, improved passenger transport, promoted walking and cycling, assisted alternatives to roading and improved road safety.

"Clearly the inner city bypass fails on all these counts. The Regional Council needs to look for projects that meet the Government's new transport objectives rather than simply repackaging an old wish list that does not."

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