Councils should be reassured they will receive government funding for roading

Councils in the lower North Island can be reassured they will receive a proportion of government funding to help repair flood-damaged roads, says the government's land transport funding agency, Transfund New Zealand.

Under usual Transfund policy, 50 percent on average of all costs associated with local roads, ie, those which are not State highways, are funded by Transfund.

For those roads damaged by a sudden and unexpected event such as last month's floods, Transfund assists councils at a higher rate.

This rate is set through a complex equation which takes into account income from rates in the district, financial assistance for road maintenance for that district and the extent of emergency works required.

In short, the more damage to the roads, the more Transfund funding councils will receive.

On the basis of the current formula, it is expected that some councils will receive over 90 percent of the cost of repairing the roads from Transfund.

Exactly how much assistance each council will get as a result of last month's floods is yet to be finalised, however, there could be up to $50 million worth of damage to local roads.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>