Shearer welcomes National’s u-turn on Waterview connection

Transport Minister Steven Joyce’s decision to back down from his preferred route for the new Waterview road connection in Auckland was welcomed today by Mt Albert Labour MP David Shearer.

“National’s announcement – dropped late yesterday in the dead news period before Christmas – that it would now build a 2.4km tunnel east of its preferred route takes us back near to what Labour had originally proposed for the route,” David Shearer said.

“With this u-turn on his May announcement, it appears that reality has finally caught up with Steven Joyce.

“The new route means that while 40-50 extra homes and a park will still be lost when measured against Labour’s proposed road, the total number of homes marked for demolition has now been reduced by about 200.

“I am delighted for the Mt Albert community that Mr Joyce has finally seen sense. But the real shame is the huge uncertainty he has caused local residents.

“Instead of putting all his energy earlier in the year into orchestrating a spin campaign to trash Labour’s option, Mr Joyce should have spent the time doing his homework and looking closer at the plans.

“He concocted figures to inflate the cost of Labour’s option to give the impression his route would save the taxpayer money,” David Shearer said.

“That has been shown to be a sham. The questions now are how much is his new route going to cost? And will he admit that his attempts to play politics with the road were a bad miscalculation?”

ENDS

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