Editorial: Time to put seal on road crusade

Whangarei CBD.

Residents out on Wright Rd and McCardle Rd in Whangarei district have spent 11 years fighting to have their roads sealed.

Slowly, they are getting somewhere.

They have lobbied, protested, marched, harangued, hassled, emailed and telephoned Whangarei and Northland politicians to have their roads sealed, to get rid of the dust nuisance and health risk.

The Whangarei District Council has now said that if three subsidised funding options fall over, the council will go ahead anyway and fully fund sealing 100-metre strips outside 120 priority sites in the district.

The council will hopefully know in April if any of its three applications to NZTA were successful.

Locals say the dust has become worse in recent years and will only get worse due to the growth in logging traffic.

Tests by Northland Regional Council and Northland District Health Board have found the levels and size of inhalable particles breach health standards. The two authorities support the district council's application for subsidies.

Pipiwai Titoki advocacy group spokeswoman Alex Wright probably deserves a medal for her tenacity, her patience and perseverance. Others would have walked away, or moved house.

Sealing will take place in October if the WDC has to, as a last resort, do the work itself.

The end is in sight but it's been a long, dusty road. Eleven years long.

Let's hope that the Pipiwai Titoki advocacy group has not only achieved success for its community, but any other community that challenges the inaction of the WDC which surely will want to avoid repeating the embarrassment of this protracted argument.