Kapiti councillors consider expressway alliance

BY RACHAEL FERGUSSON

Kapiti councillors voted to consider joining an alliance with the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) last week, a decision that will enable the council to "advocate" for the community, some councillors said.

The Kapiti Coast District Council chambers were packed at Thursday's council meeting, with many members of the public taking the opportunity to voice their concerns, show their support for the council or express their opinions on the expressway.

Plans for a four-lane motorway following the Western Link Rd designation were announced by the Government in December.

More than 20 people spoke during public speaking time on the roading plans, many saying they supported the council's submission last year and invited it to join a sustainable alliance, instead of a transport agency one.

NZTA has invited the council to join an alliance - a form of contract used to fast-track large and generally high-cost projects.

The agency was "very keen" to have the council as a member because it was a way of reducing the potential for the council to raise issues at the board of enquiry stage, a report to councillors said.

It is the first time a local authority has been invited to join an alliance.

The report recommends the council enter discussions with NZTA to join the alliance but added that the council should include a clause allowing it to opt out at any stage.

Te Ra School principal Doris Zuur told councillors to keep fighting for a two-lane Western Link Rd.

Mrs Zuur is the acting spokeswoman for ASK - the Alliance for Sustainable Kapiti - the group that launched a petition to Prime Minister John Key opposing the expressway.

So far, the group has collected more than 1200 signatures.

ASK wants upgrades to State Highway 1, a local Western Link road and a better public transport system.

She urged the council not to join the alliance with NZTA, instead inviting it to join ASK.

"ASK will not give up," she said.

Marie O'Sullivan said if the council joined the alliance it would be "selling out" and an act of "political suicide".

On the other side of the debate, Helene Donaldson said the council needed to join the NZTA alliance to get what Kapiti needed.

The decision on where the expressway was going had already been made and, if the council did not work with the alliance, the community would not get what it wanted, she said.

Mayor Jenny Rowan said the council was now entering "round two" of the expressway debate and it was "time to move on and work together".

She said the expressway will be built and the council has to do what it can to "advocate for this community".

Ms Rowan and councillors Diane Ammundsen, Hillary Wooding, Anne Molineux, and Peter Ellis voted for council to enter into discussions with NZTA about becoming a member of the alliance. Sandra Patton, Peter Daniel, Tony Jack, and Lyndy McIntyre voted against it.

For the council to join the alliance a number of membership criteria need to be met, including the council not being liable for costs arising from the alliance, that it can review its level of involvement based on the outcomes of decisions by the alliance and that it would have an automatic right to withdraw from the alliance following any decision by the NZTA board to overrule a decision or recommendation by the project alliance board.

If the council joins, the alliance will need to adopt protocols that recognise the council's duty to work in a transparent manner with the community and with tangata whenua.

Ms McIntyre said she did not think the council should join the alliance and believed it should stand firm and continue to challenge the Government in its "flawed thinking".

Ms Molineux said councillors needed to get the best outcome for the community and look at the best way to influence the design process, which meant being inside the alliance.

The council also passed a motion that if NZTA did not agree to the membership criteria, the decision on whether the council would join the alliance would go back to councillors for consideration.

It will prepare its own set of objectives, in consultation with the community, when it negotiates with the alliance.

A motion was also carried that land bought for the Western Link Rd is to be retained by the council until NZTA confirms it has secured the statutory consents and funding necessary for construction of the expressway.

The council will ask NZTA to provide clarification on the process it will use related to the expressway through Otaki.

Ann Chapman and David Scott were not at the meeting.

- Kapiti Observer