Its infrastructure investment plans include scrapping the proposed Puhoi to Wellsford “holiday highway” in favour of 60% Government funding for Auckland’s proposed CBD rail link.
But Northland Regional Council’s 30 year transport strategy cites the expressway as important for economic development, saying “the priorities of urban compared to rural transport movements are challenges we must address”.
In a press release, Green transport spokesperson Gareth Hughes says investment in Auckland “should be the priority over faster access to northern beaches [for] ten holidays a year”.
Mr Hughes told NewsWire that scrapping the highway has plenty of support from Northlanders.
“What I’m hearing is they want urgent road safety updates now, not waiting decades for the Holiday Highway [to be] complete.”
In the meantime, New Zealanders have been locked into a car-dependent culture that includes high fuel costs and environmental pollution, he says.
“Europe shows that you can have fast, modern, affordable public transport in cities half the size of Whangarei.
“So if we invested in public transport, walking and cycling, we could actually give Kiwis a choice.”
But Northland Regional Transport Committee chairman John Bain says continued road development is crucial for a region that takes up “38 per cent of the length of the North Island”.
The proposed expressway would be a key route for Northland’s exports, including the “five F’s” of forestry, farming, fisheries, flowers and fruit.
“You’ve got to understand that a huge percentage of the goods produced in Northland are exported either to or through the Auckland system.”
He says the Green party’s transport policy amounts to freight being “taken down by bicycle”.
“Without the transportation, we cannot move our goods to the markets that we have.”
Mr Hughes says he acknowledges the needs of Northland.
“The thing is, they want infrastructure investment and we would still provide that.”
The Green party plans to ease congestion on Northland’s roads by moving more freight into coastal shipping and rail.
“Rail and coastal shipping carry a much smaller volume than they once did decades ago. It’s no surprise – we’ve prioritised much of the funding into motorways and trucking infrastructure.”
However, Mr Bain says that alternate forms of transport will only go so far for Northland.
“In the end the quickest and most efficient way for the majority of the type of export that we’re doing is by truck at the moment.”
For instance, rail is only effective for freight that is not time dependent: “If you were sending ice cream down by rail, it would probably end up as milk powder by the time it arrived.”
Mr Bain says he is sympathetic to the needs of Auckland and understands the city will experience high population growth over the next two decades.
“But at the same time we are desperate to have money put into the rural roads right through New Zealand, not just Northland, for maintenance to keep the roads fit for purpose.”