Fears more Waterview homes will go

Waterview residents fear dozens more homes may be lost than the hundreds already proposed for demolition to make way for a $1.4 billion surface-tunnel motorway.

Tunnel or Nothing spokeswoman Margi Watson, one of about 15 residents who subjected the Transport Agency's board to a barrage of concerns at a meeting in the city yesterday, said she had counted 63 threatened homes in addition to the 365 already facing demolition.

That count was based on a recommendation to Auckland City's transport committee from the council's urban design review team that the agency buy and remove a line of houses on the western side of Great North Rd because of the likely severe construction impact of a "cut and cover" tunnel under the road.

Ms Watson complained of the committee's failure to relay that to the Transport Agency board, which held its monthly meeting in Auckland to listen to community concerns about the motorway project before giving approval to proceed to planning applications.

She believed the project was already starting to cause community upheaval, and the loss of homes and green space would mean an exodus of about a thousand people from her close-knit community.

Despite her fears, and those of other community members who appealed to the board to stand up to Transport Minister Steven Joyce and send the project back to the drawing board, agency project director Clive Fuhr denied last night that the extra homes would have to go. Mr Fuhr, who said he was unaware of the design team's recommendation, insisted that the tunnel's "footprint" under Great North Rd would not require the removal of properties lining its western side.

He said the tunnel would take only about 18 months to construct in a four-year project due to start in 2011.

Waterview Primary principal Brett Skeen welcomed advice from Transport Agency chairman Brian Roche that the board would wait two or three weeks before deciding whether to approve the project, so it could weigh up community concerns and other considerations. He urged the board to visit his school, which could face closure if the motorway did not leave enough of a community to support it.

Cowley St resident Peter McCurdy said an archaeological "treasure trove" throughout the area was ignored in agency plans and the motorway would obliterate a rich repository of pre-European and colonial history.

Eden-Albert Community Board member Phil Chase said the large amount of green space in the project's path could not be replaced in suburbs already lacking parkland, and Auckland should join other "civilised" world cities by vetoing more motorways through established communities in favour of superior public transport.

But Centre for Urban and Transport Studies representative David Willmott, whose group wants a cheaper motorway built above ground and through the Oakley Creek corridor, said people from elsewhere in Auckland were as entitled to easy passage through Waterview as its residents were to travel through other parts of the region.