Despite Kaikōura District Council’s project to rebuild the Waiau Toa/Clarence River Glen Alton bridge after the Kaikōura earthquake being eight years deep, the Council have still not even managed to gain the appropriate resource consents or buy the necessary land. This is despite the New Zealand Transport Agency’s 95% subsidy of the project expiring in only 10 months’ time.

Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ Union Communications Officer, Alex Emes, said:

“The recent construction news - or lack thereof - regarding the Waiau Toa/Clarence River Glen Alton bridge is a prime example of how councils are failing Kiwis.  Kaikōura’s council fumbling of a $13.5 million grant from NZTA and failing to sort the proper resource consents eight years into the project is an utter embarrassment.

“Is it any wonder New Zealand is facing an infrastructure crisis when even Councils themselves can’t wade through planning red tape without nearly a decade of back-and-forth talking shops? Clearly wholesale RMA reform is long overdue.

“Kaikōura District Council is being offered taxpayers’ money hand over foot for this project, and they still can’t get it right. When Luxon told councils that Kiwis expect them to focus on getting the basics right, this is exactly the sort of fiasco he was rightly calling out.”

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