Transport Agency accused of taking 'Shylock' approach

Oakley Creek may be improved. Photo / Martin Sykes

The Transport Agency was accused by a planning commissioner yesterday of taking a penny-pinching approach towards mitigating local impacts of its $1.7 billion Waterview motorways project.

Ross Dunlop, one of a five-member board of inquiry appointed by the Government to make a final decision by June on what is proposed as the country's largest transport undertaking, said the agency seemed to be taking "a Shylock approach of not a penny less or a penny more - down to the last decimal point of open space".

Mr Dunlop, whose reference was to a ruthless moneylender in Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice, made the suggestion to agency planning consultant Amelia Linzey in asking how her client believed local residents should be compensated for "hosting" the giant project during a five- or six-year construction period.

Although the agency and the Auckland Council are still haggling over the amount of replacement open space, which should be provided through a Mt Albert green belt and in a modified Waterview Reserve, Ms Linzey said some aspects of the project would leave the environment better off than now.

These included proposals to upgrade the Waterview Primary School and its adjacent kindergarten, which the agency has offered to relocate, as well as the revegetation of large stretches of Oakley Creek and the treatment of stormwater discharges from a widened Northwestern Motorway causeway through a marine reserve.

But Ms Linzey said the agency also had a responsibility to taxpayers to balance environmental impacts against extra costs which could see other transport projects being deferred.

Although other agency witnesses have supported the city council's preference for partly-buried ventilation and operation buildings at the southern portals of a 2.5km pair of motorway tunnels between Owairaka and Waterview, she told board of inquiry member Alan Dormer that $11 million to $21 million in extra costs could be better spent on other mitigation measures.

The council also wants the agency to build a cycleway above the tunnels to connect the region's Southwestern and Northwestern cycle paths, but Ms Linzey said that would cost $9.7 million to $12.9 million and should be considered as a separate but complementary collaborative project among the various parties, including Auckland Transport.

Although other transport agencies are due to take the stand today, the board invited the council and its transport subsidiary to open their case late yesterday.

Their lawyer, Gerald Lanning, said they supported the motorways project in principle but wanted its effects more appropriately or fully mitigated.

Most issues had been sorted through to his clients' satisfaction, but those left unresolved included the cycleway, replacement open space, the location of the southern portal buildings and the impact of the widened causeway on Traherne Island, through which the Northwestern Motorway runs.

Mr Lanning said the agency's mitigation proposals appeared to be significantly influenced by monetary costs, and his clients did not believe adverse effects had been adequately minimised.

"Where adverse effects are 'unavoidable' it may be necessary to enhance the overall benefits of the project to tip the balance in favour of granting consent of confirming the notices of requirement," he submitted.

Mr Lanning also said his clients' position may change, as the parties were actively discussing a mitigation package relating to open space and the suggested cycleway, which was due to be considered as an urgent matter by Auckland Council members today.