Minister acknowledges road funding hasn’t been good enough

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

From local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:

New Associate Minister of Local Government Kieran McAnulty admits we’re now “seeing the impacts’’ of roading funding cuts in Mid Canterbury.

The Wairarapa-based McAnulty, who also has emergency management, racing and transport in his ministerial and associate minister portfolio, let his roading feelings known while in Mid Canterbury on Tuesday.

He knew roading was a hot topic, as it was in any other region, but especially in Ashburton and wider Canterbury.

“It’s an issue facing many rural councils in that they have a large geographical area, a lot of roads and a small population from which to fund it,” said McAnulty, who is completing a tour of all 55 rural and provincial councils.

Ashburton was stop number 41 for the Labour MP.

He had closed-door discussions with the Ashburton District Council in which he said they covered a lot of issues from emergency management, the future of local government, three waters, roading and transport, and the proposed second bridge.

But roading maintenance and funding was top of mind, with McAnulty admitting councils had been left in the lurch from a period of underfunding and it wasn’t good enough.

As a small roading financial booster, he said there was an additional almost $15 million of funding heading the Ashburton District’s way in the next three years to help.

He was also pleased to see progress being made with Ashburton’s proposed second urban bridge.

“The proposal is pretty strong,” said McAnulty, who knows the district well as his parents lived in Fairton for eight years.

“We know that from a resilience point of view, the recent weather event put that at the forefront of everybody’s mind.”

He was also aware of Environment Canterbury’s plea for $150m of Government funding over the next 10 years for nationwide flood protection funding. While that wasn’t something that has come across his desk, it is linked to work he has in progress.

“There is a need for a consideration around longer-term funding of flood protection,’’ he said.

“If you can invest in flood protection, it lessens the impact when there is a severe weather event. And we are kidding ourselves if we don’t recognise that these weather events aren’t going to become more frequent and severe.”