KEY POINTS:
The Government is pushing on with a study into charging Auckland motorists using key roads at peak times, despite an online revolt by 1.3 million Britons against proposals that could cost them up to $3 a kilometre.
Although most Aucklanders also oppose the idea of "congestion charges", the Government says support indicated by 25 per cent of submissions is "slightly higher" than for overseas schemes at such an early consultation stage.
Transport Minister Annette King has asked her officials to move to a second stage of their study, the first phase of which took a year and cost $2.3 million before being parked up in May after a six-week public consultation exercise produced more than 800 submissions.
She wants the officials to analyse issues raised in the submissions and investigate the extent to which better public transport could address concerns about a lack of alternatives to driving cars in Auckland.
Issues for investigation include the extent to which adverse social impacts can be softened, and weighing potential productivity gains against costs to motorists and transport operators.
But Mrs King has also broadened the terms of the study, which is likely to take another year of discussions with key groups ranging from the Auckland Regional Transport Authority to business organisations such as Heart of the City, which fears a central-city charging scheme may drive away customers while simply spreading congestion to other areas.
Although the ministry put up five models for public discussion last year, at a potential cost to motorists of $3 to $10 a day, it said then that the main objective was to reduce traffic congestion rather than raise revenue.
But the amount of mitigation spending the schemes would have entailed, primarily for providing more public transport, meant two of them would have been uneconomic.
Mrs King has therefore asked her ministry to produce a sixth scheme with the primary objective of raising extra money for Auckland's transport needs.
That is likely to cut directly across anti-congestion efforts, as officials believe such a scheme would entail collecting lower fees from a larger number of motorists.
Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard, who is championing road-charging as a weapon against congestion, said last night he would need to consider implications of the new approach before commenting.
But he told the Herald he was heartened that the Government was at least prepared to continue its study, and that it had not been deterred by the level of opposition.
Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee called on the Government to listen to the majority of submitters and to drop the idea of road-charging to and concentrate more on providing adequate public transport.
"They should look at what's happening with [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair's website," he said, in reference to an online revolt in Britain against plans for pilot schemes in 10 districts.
Part of Mr Blair's website crashed this week as thousands of drivers rushed to add their names to an online petition already signed by 1.3 million.
Road tolls, council debt on rates inquiry agenda
Road tolls and the prospect of councils taking on more debt to fund big projects are on the table as an independent inquiry into rates gets under way.
The inquiry, set up by the Government and New Zealand First in August as debate about rates rises hit fever pitch, will include an examination of possible new sources of revenue for councils.
Inquiry chairman David Shand said yesterday that of all the options to be assessed, road funding was what his team particularly wanted to look at.
"That gets into the question of user taxes in various forms for road funding and that is the area where there'll be the most serious analysis of alternative taxation sources," Mr Shand said.
Councils own more than 80 per cent of the country's roads.
The rates inquiry team has also indicated an interest in finding out what people think about councils taking on more debt.
In a background paper released this week, the team noted councils had a "generally low level of borrowing" to fund infrastructure and facilities.
At June 30, 2005, local authority debt amounted to about $3 billion, against $62 billion in assets owned.
"Most local authorities could make more use of debt as a tool for spreading the costs of projects over a longer period," the paper said. The inquiry invites written submissions.
