Mayor seeks new division of road cash

By TONY GEE

Rural areas are condemned to Third World roads because of Transfund subsidy criteria, says the Far North District Council.

It will urge the agency to consider a new subsidy allocation formula to eliminate what it calls serious inequities.

Far North Mayor Yvonne Sharp said the proposed formula would leave most rural districts better off for roading, and have little, if any, impact on most urban areas.

A report on the effect on local authorities of Transfund's current formula for allocating subsidies showed that the Far North and other rural councils at the lower end of the socio-economic scale could never make real progress to improve substandard roads, she said.

The report, by former Far North District councillor Dr Robert Lowe, says these councils need more money from Transfund.

Mrs Sharp said the report revealed inequities where 33 per cent of the country's population paid 80 per cent of the cost of local roading networks. That 33 per cent had a mean income $2500 less than the rest of the population.

Annual local roading share costs for each person living in city and district council areas ranged from $14 to $210, with an average of $61 per person.

The report showed that all 15 city councils had annual roading costs per person below the average, ranging from $27 to $51.

A total of 29 rural councils had per person roading costs over $100.

The local share is the amount a council's ratepayers have to pay for roading projects after Transfund subsidies of up to 66 per cent for new or capital work such as sealing, or around 50 per cent nationally for maintenance.

In the Far North, local roading share costs $113 per person.

At best, the district could expect only a 60 per cent Transfund contribution to a proposed 10-year, $120 million road improvement programme.

Dr Lowe said that left $4.8 million to be met annually by Far North ratepayers as their share for the work.

This amount would be on top of the $6.5 million cost to ratepayers for ordinary road maintenance work on the district's 2500km-long roading network, of which only 28 per cent was sealed.

Mrs Sharp said that without investment in road improvement, "we will not meet our national responsibility to provide an appropriate infrastructure for tourism, nor the needs of the forestry industry or expectations of our local communities".

"Much of our roading network would remain Third World standard."

The Far North council will ask Transfund to adopt a formula based on each council contributing a standard amount per rating unit.

Councils with a sparse population supporting high roading costs would get money from Transfund which would normally go to wealthier or urban councils.