Rt. Hon Winston Peters
Leader NZ First

October 7 2011

Manawatu Gorge Closure Shows Folly of Government Transport Planning says Rt. Hon Winston Peters

“What confidence can we have in Government’s grandiose plans for new motorways – the so called Roads of National Significance (RONS) –when they cannot even keep an existing State Highway open?” says the Rt. Hon Winston Peters.

As reported in the NZ Herald (6 October) State Highway 3 through the Manawatu Gorge is now expected to be closed for at least another 2 months.

“The Government is planning to sink billions of dollars into a motorway building extravaganza when they are incapable of maintaining the roads we already have.”

“As anyone who has noticed the patching of State Highways can see it is not just the Manawatu Gorge but other parts of the roading network that are also in a poor state of repair.”

“Maintaining the existing roading network must be the priority,” says Winston Peters, “not starving the system of funds to pay for Stephen Joyce’s vanity motorway projects that have no proven cost-benefit case.”

NZ First would scrap the Roads of National Significance (RONS) folly and bring in an affordable and rational land transport policy focused on roads that need to be built rather than pursuing a public relations campaign implying the Government is doing something.

ENDS

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