KEY POINTS:
Two toll road proposals came under fire at the Auckland Regional Council yesterday - Transit NZ's western motorway bypass and Rodney District's Penlink route to Whangaparaoa Peninsula.
The council's transport policy committee voted to refuse support for tolling the 48km western ring route and to oppose a bid by Rodney for a 58 per cent Land Transport NZ subsidy for a $160 million road across the Weiti River to Whangaparaoa.
Rodney District Council hopes to contract a private developer to pay for the rest and to recover costs from tolls of up to $2.50 over 35 years in return for peak-time trip savings of at least 15 minutes.
But regional councillors fear that if the project proves financially unsound, it will impose a burden on transport funds they believe should go to higher priorities.
Submissions on Penlink close tomorrow, although Aucklanders have just over two more weeks to make their views known on Transit's plan to charge motorists tolls ranging from 75c to $1.50c at peak times past each of seven electronic gantries on the ring route.
Regional council strategic policy chairman Paul Walbran criticised Transit's reluctance to disclose financial details until last Friday, when it issued figures indicating administration costs of tolls over 35 years would equal the $800 million it needs to borrow to complete the route by 2015.
Transit says that with just $1.3 billion the Government has committed from traditional funding, the full bypass may not be open until 2030.
Mr Walbran said with the collapse of a Transit plan to toll a duplicate Tauranga harbour bridge, it was "desperately casting around" for another plan to spread the costs of its scheme to charge motorists on the Northern Motorway extension to Puhoi.
That has previously been denied by Transit chief executive Rick van Barneveld, who said the Puhoi extension would prove viable over time.
The committee also heard deputations from three pressure groups opposed to tolls, including the Residents Action Movement, which warned of "an irrevocable breakdown" of society from fewer social gatherings and higher house prices in areas close to workplaces.
