Transport head hits back at 'holiday highway'

Northland's top transport politician is furious with his Auckland counterparts for belittling the need for a $2.3 billion highway extension between Puhoi and Wellsford.

Northland Regional Transport Committee chairman John Bain said yesterday that the four-lane 34km link proposed by the Government as one of seven "roads of national significance" was critical to the prosperity of his region.

He was responding to the road's placement, in a staff report to the Auckland regional transport committee, at the bottom of the list of 15 transport projects assessed against regional strategical priorities.

The assessment - against eight factors including economic development, urgency, safety and the integration of transport and land-use planning - gave the Puhoi-Wellsford road a score of 11 out of 40, against 27 points for the Auckland rail electrification.

Mr Bain said he was "disgusted" that Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee had derided the proposed link as a "holiday highway" and unimpressed with a claim by regional transport chairwoman Christine Rose that it would siphon money away from local roads.

"I understand that the Auckland Regional Council, and in particular Mr Lee and Ms Rose, have no interest north of Orewa, but the top third of the North Island which we represent is in need of some fairly severe road improvements to our state highways," he said.

"It's essential for our well-being that this road starts at Puhoi and continues through Wellsford and eventually ends up in Whangarei, and from Whangarei it can go into the Bay of Islands and further north where our tourists all head to."

Mr Bain said Northland attracted five million visitors as year, including a million overseas tourists, bringing immense benefits both to his region and the national economy.

But they had to put up with substandard roads, as did freight operators contributing to the region's prosperity.

"Have a look at the Dome Valley - that has had a frightening number of road deaths - so many that the speed limit has been reduced from 100km/h to 80km/h."

He urged his Auckland counterparts to accept that Transport Minister Steven Joyce and the Government had set a policy directive, and to work with that rather than trying to "joust with windmills".

Although Northland had 3500km of unsealed roads, compared with the 700km which Ms Rose had expressed concern about through Rodney District, Mr Bain said the first step was to ensure State Highway One "is one we can be proud of and safe to travel on".

"We want to have people who, when they come out of the airport in Auckland, turn left instead of right so that means they come to Northland rather than head to Coromandel where it's going to cost them an extra $40 a night [for illegal camping]."