Dialogue: Taurangans sick of being short-changed on roading

By ROSALEEN MACBRAYNE

Tauranga has the dubious distinction of having the only toll road in the country - and it is soon to have a second one.

The harbour bridge linking the city and Mt Maunganui has been a cash cow for 13 years, and the Tauranga District Council has milked it for all it's worth. But now, regular bridge users, who pay up to $500 a year, have had enough. They say they are being sucked dry and it is time to find anudder source of funds.

At issue is that the bridge itself has - or should have - been long paid for. Perhaps understandably, while the going was good the council kept collecting the tolls to fund other urgent roading projects in the fast-growing district.

The 1.75km bridge crossing was opened in 1988 and, to date, four times its $27 million cost has been collected in tolls. Users pay $1 for cars and up to $9 for trucks (depending on size). On a busy day, 31,000 vehicles pass through the toll plaza.

A few mutinous Mt Maunganui commuters have resorted to civil disobedience. They have been tailgating the cars in front at booths and shooting through behind them without paying before the barrier arm comes down.

They make a valid point about the unfairness of the continued levy. The matter was publicly highlighted last year by a tenacious band of lobbyists, the Tolls Action Group, which has staunchly objected to bridge charges continuing to finance other roading projects from which many bridge-users will get no benefit.

The action group and the district council reached an impasse, holding opposing legal opinions on whether the council's inventive use of tolls to fund works not directly associated with the bridge was legal.

Under increasing public pressure, the council has said the bridge charges will be lifted next year - but that is not soon enough for some residents who feel exploited and are eyeing the ballot box to make their mark at the local body elections in November.

However, it is a reality that Tauranga district - with more than twice the national growth rate - is under pressure to complete a major roading network to relieve serious traffic congestion. Much of the work does not qualify for Transfund finance under the miserable criteria that apply, and the local authority has decided that user-pays tolling is more equitable than further burdening ratepayers, a significant number of whom are elderly and on fixed incomes.

The harbour bridge and the Waikareao expressway are two important components of the strategic roading system. They are both funded by tolls collected at the plaza on the Mt Maunganui side of the bridge, under somewhat loose legislation passed by Parliament in the 1970s and the 1980s.

Last year, the district council went back to Wellington for a third time and the Route K Toll Empowering Bill was successful. It permits another toll station on the other side of town to fund a more efficient route for commercial and heavy industrial traffic coming down the Kaimai Range to the Port of Tauranga.

But this time restraints were put on the council's powers and obligations so that there would be greater transparency in the use of toll money.

Controversy is the price the Tauranga District Council has to pay for its "trail-blazing" answer to providing much-needed local roading. It appears to have pushed public patience too far with the bridge toll but what alternatives are there?

Perhaps the Port of Tauranga, New Zealand's largest export and third-largest import port, could cough up a capital contribution. After all, it attracts a phenomenal traffic volume and gets plenty of mileage out of the local roading network.

The port company has put considerable investment into rail-loading facilities. Better rail service might get some logging trucks off roads.

More public transport is also being addressed. An expanded and cheaper bus service subsidised by the regional council, Environment Bay of Plenty, will be introduced on April 17. It is hoped that more Tauranga people will then leave their cars at home.

Basically, though, the western Bay of Plenty is being short-changed by the Government. It should be coming to Tauranga's rescue with funds from its rich road-tax take.

Any chance pigs might fly?