Ashburton District’s $15m road funding hole

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

By local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:

Mid Canterbury leaders feels short-changed on its roading budget as it deals with a $15 million hole in the district's plan.

The National Land Transport Plan (NLTP), which sets funding across the country, has allocated $158.7m for the region for the 2024-27 period.

However, $113m of that is allocated to Ashburton’s second bridge, leaving just $45.7m for the council to spend on the road network over the next three years.

Ashburton Mayor Neil Brown said while it was good their maintenance funding had increased, there is a big gap in the council’s budgets from cuts to other areas.

The council is already playing catch up with its roading network and a funding gap will have an impact on the 2,622 km roading network, he said.

“Some parts of the roads will improve but others will deteriorate.
“Inflation has not been roadings' friend over the last three years, so the roads are still going backwards.”

He pointed to the perennial frustration of the national transport plan coming out months after councils had set their budgets.

“We now have to go back and revisit our budgets and work programmes that we haven’t been funded for,” Brown said.

Ashburton District Council increased its roading budgets by 25% for the next three years in its long-term plan, and had requesting maintenance, operations and renewal funding of $48.6m and $12m for low cost, low risk projects over the next three years.

The $45.7m funding will cover maintenance, operations and renewal, but nothing for the low cost, low risk projects – things like intersection upgrades, street lights, signage, and footpaths.

For the 2024-25 roading programme there is $2.4m of funding from rates not matched by NZTA subsidy.

Council infrastructure and open spaces group manager Neil McCann said a report will go to the council meeting tomorrow detailing the NZTA-approved budget, what it means for the council, and how it compares to the long-term plan.

“It will also identify options for council to consider how we spend the council portion of the LTP subsidised budget that is no longer subsidised.”

The NZTA funding data also shows only a 51% Government contribution for the second Ashburton bridge.

This means it will receive the same funding category as any other local road, despite being designated as a ‘road of regional significance’ by the transport minister.

Rangitatat Mp James Meager said designating the bridge as a Road of Regional Significance means it is prioritised by NZTA over other local roading project, and at least 51% of it will be funded.

He also said the 2024-27 NLTP has a 193% increase in funding to the Ashburton District compared to the actual spend in 2021-24.

"The NLTP has allocated total funding of $158.7m for the 2024-27 period, compared to $54m of actual spend in 2021-24."

***Funding gap remains
Environment Canterbury chairperson Peter Scott says the South Island isn’t getting a fair deal, with revenue derived here being directed to the North Island.

Scott, who also chairs the Canterbury Regional Transport Committee, said funding for the NLTP is drawn from fuel taxes and road user charges and Canterbury is only receiving 7% of the funding.

Figures released by NZTA through the Official Information Act show that from May 2023 to May 2024, there were $2.078 billion [$2,078,344,820] road user chargers collected.

Of that, 13% ($275.8m) came from Canterbury, only behind Auckland (28.9%) and Waikato (15.5%), while the South Island excluding Canterbury made up 12.3%.

“The money that comes from road use in our communities should therefore be put back into our communities.

“Our bread-and-butter funding is being spread like jam across other regions.”

Scott said that Canterbury has 12% of the population and over 16% of the national roading network, “but we generally only ever receive around 5 to 8% of the NLTP funding”.

“All we’re asking for is our fair share.”