Should logging trucks be forced to pay more to repair the damage they cause on unsealed roads?
It is a hot topic in some rural communities.
"The costs certainly go up, so we have to try and find the money from somewhere. Councils throughout the country really are faced with this situation, they will be looking at all the ways they can to try and recover some of those costs, but ultimately they fall back on the ratepayers," says Mayor of Stratford Neil Volzke.
The debate has been triggered by an announcement - from the New Zealand Transport Agency - that it is changing the way it funds roading maintenance.
From next year - it will spend more of it's budget on nationally significant roads - and less on rural roads.
"The one network road classification is a standard classification for the entire New Zealand Roading Network. So you classify the road based on a number of things, first of all the easy stuff the traffic volumes, then the number of heavy vehicles," says Ross I'Anson, NZTA Investment and Planning Manager.
The decision has got local authorities - like Stratford Council - wondering how to make up the funding shortfall.
"What's changed is the amount of money we are having to spend because of the logging activity. And typically we are spending something in the order of about $1500 per kilometer to maintain an unsealed road. When logging happens that cost can go up to about $10,000 dollars per kilometer," says Stratford District Council Roading Engineer Steve Bowden.
Local Focus asked three logging companies operating within Taranaki region to comment.
All three declined.
NZTA says there are currently around nine councils involved in a study on the impact of logging on roads.
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