Last hours of bridge tolls for Tauranga

By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE

From 11 pm tomorrow motorists will be able to cross the harbour bridge linking Tauranga and Mt Maunganui for free.

Since tolls were introduced on March 18, 1988, more than $90 million has been collected for roading projects. But the toll of $1 a car has attracted protests from some drivers.

"It is the end of an era," says mayor Noel Pope. But he is not celebrating.

With its cash cow drying up, the Tauranga District Council now has the headache of finding other ways to fund roading for the rapidly growing city.

Unlike tolls on the Auckland Harbour Bridge and the Lyttelton Tunnel, the Tauranga toll carried on long after the cost of building the $27 million crossing had been met.

After an increasingly bitter battle, in which the council and a Tolls Action Group held opposing legal opinions on whether the bridge charge was lawful, councillors - with an election in view - bowed to public pressure and agreed to scrap it.

But before doing so, they got another Toll Empowering Bill through Parliament. A toll will be slapped on Route K at Tauriko, on the other side of the district, when the road is built in 2003 between Kaimai Range and the Port of Tauranga.

This time, however, the politicians in Wellington have put a limit on the toll collection, which will stop once Route K is paid for.

Tolls have been Tauranga's "trail blazing" answer to providing much-needed roading in the area. But the bridge charge ended up pushing public patience too far.

The Tolls Action Group has objected to the tolls continuing to finance other roading projects.

However, Noel Pope warns that further user-pay roads may be necessary.

With more than twice the national growth rate, Tauranga is under pressure to complete a roading network - much of which fails to meet Transfund criteria - to relieve serious traffic congestion.

The irony, says Mr Pope, is that necessary works such as upgrading the Waikareao Expressway link and building a second harbour bridge are "within sight of the toll booths we are about to pull down."

He is sad that a lack of foresight may stymie Tauranga's roading development and predicts increasing snarl-ups on already busy routes.

"We are going to be throttled, but we have to wear it."

Tolls Action spokesman Ross Linney says the removal of the toll ends the organisation's active campaign.

"A small group of people with a strong sense of justice and faith in the fairness of their cause demonstrated what could be achieved by their commitment," he says.

It took hours of meetings, thousands of telephone calls, more than 200 letters to the council, Government ministers, the Auditor-General, the Ombudsman, select committees and individual politicians.

Mr Linney says the Tolls Action Group will monitor future plans to ensure that any toll proposals are fair and not used again as "an expedient means of exploiting a minority."

Meanwhile, the winners are the regular commuters who have been paying $1 for cars and up to $9 for trucks (depending on size) to cross the bridge.

Residents can look forward to cheaper taxi, courier and cartage rates - and, almost certainly, an increase in traffic over the bridge between Tauranga and Mt Maunganui.