Press release from Citizens Environmental Advocacy Centre. 21/8/19.

After twenty years Napier residents have endured heavy sleep and health disruptive noise and air pollution from freight trucks gridlock operations to and from the Napier port and other regions.

Recently our group requested ‘all historic documentation’ from NZTA under the OIA from 1995 to 2019 regarding the planning and building of the truck route through Napier and all documents that show how NZTA and it’s former Transit NZ planned to protect the ‘health and wellbeing’ and provide for Environmental and social responsibility for the residential communities of Napier.

Apparently past history has shown that we residents had never received any evidence from Transit NZ/NZTA of any such ‘Environmental and social responsibility’ protection ever given us as “affected residents living alongside their truck route”.

So it was a shock to receive a letter ‘declining our request’ for the information from the “Ministerial Services” NZTA Office of the Chief Executive National Office / Victoria Arcade, 50 Victoria Street, Wellington 6141, New Zealand.

Are these roading agencies actually ‘responsible for the health and safety of our communities’ they operate their road activities inside the residential zones of our cities and towns?

“Environmental and social responsibility” is the term these agencies use on their website, so why do they believe they do not produce to us their plans to provide those “Environmental and social responsibilities” at our own property residential locations?

All they suggested was our right to go to the Ombudsman.

We need our Napier MP Stuart Nash to now take this up with the Minister of Transport Phil Twyford, and we as tax and ratepayers need to see some accountability here as this particular Government Agency called NZTA is not providing us residents with any “Environmental and social responsibility” here at present.

Is the real reason for the Chief executive office denying this OIA request information by us residents due to this; “apparently past history has shown that we residents had never received any evidence from Transit NZ/NZTA of any such ‘Environmental and social responsibility’ protection ever given us as “affected residents living alongside their truck route”.

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