Roads' share of cash to be slashed

By VERNON SMALL

The Government's long-awaited land transport plan will be unveiled next week, including a 4c-a-litre rise in petrol tax to help raise the $250 million a year it will cost, parliamentary sources said yesterday.

A key component will be the division of spending between new roads, especially in Auckland, and public transport.

The Greens, as the price for their support, have been pressing for a more balanced mix than the current 90 per cent-plus spent on roads.

It is understood that about $150 million of the new money will be earmarked for roads, leaving about $100 million for rail and other public transport options.

The Government is also likely to relax rules for allocating the National Roads Fund's $1.3 billion budget.

It is unclear whether the Greens will agree to Government plans for private toll motorways.

They are likely to be approved provided that an alternative free route is available and that the toll road eventually reverts to public ownership.

The Coalition also wants to allow local authorities to impose toll-road schemes.

The Greens have raised in Parliament the option of preventing private toll-road schemes from using provisions of the Public Works Act which can force those in the way of new developments to sell their land.

Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said talks with the Government were "proceeding quite well and may not be too far away from agreement".

"We have been negotiating with the Government for a far more balanced and integrated transport strategy than we have had in the past, and they haven't been totally opposed to that."

" I think we have made quite a bit of progress."

The package is tipped to include higher road-user charges, and more spending to upgrade East Coast and Northland roads to handle more logging trucks.

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