Councils warn Coast to be penalised in road funding change
By local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
Changes to emergency work provisions in the National Transport Fund will cut local road funding and hurt West Coast communities, say the region's four councils.
In a joint submission, the Buller, Grey, and Westland district councils along with the West Coast Regional Council, have called for greater interagency collaboration in "a cohesive approach" to road planning and investment.
The submission will be tabled at the regional council's Resource Management Committee next week.
They are concerned changes to the funding of emergency works under the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Emergency Works Policy Review will leave areas like the West Coast worse off - at a time when extreme weather is closing its roads with increasing frequency.
"The likely consequence is a reduction in level of service on local roads, reduced maintenance, and unintended negative social and economic consequences for local communities and tourists," the joint submission says.
The councils acknowledge both they and the NZTA are challenged to "sustainably fund" road fixups in the face of the increasingly intense weather related events.
But they say while the emergency work provision review helps NZTA to address pressure on the National Land Transport Fund, the proposed changes to the eligibility criteria and funding assistance rates "will transfer considerable costs" to local councils.
District councils are already under "extreme pressure" to fund core road maintenance, operation and renewal, the submission says.
"More frequent and intense storm events resulting in flooding of roads and instability of adjoining land have highlighted the vulnerabilities of the West Coast road network."
The resulting disruption sometimes saw "displacement" of its communities with very prominent examples including "stranded tourists".
Other big impacts were the inability to move fast moving consumer goods and freight, the impact on the region's primary industries, and the loss of access to the DOC estate including the great walks in the region.
"The likely consequence of the proposed policy changes - in conjunction with forecast intensity and frequency of future weather events -
- is a reduction in level of service to our communities and businesses," the submission says.
The potential for longer or permanent road closures, loss of access, and "unintended negative social and economic consequences" were real consequences.
The Coast councils are particularly worried at the proposed change to the qualifying return period for an emergency event, for central government road repair funding, to a minimum frequency of a one-in-20-year event.
"This is a significant event size increase, and as event return periods are changed as climate models are updated, it is likely that a qualifying 1-in-20-year event today could soon be a non-qualifying 1-in-15-year event."
Further, Niwa forecasts for weather related events to 2040 predicted increased intensity of cyclones, short term high intensity rainfall event by plus 4.7% for every 1C increase.
The councils are also concerned the change to subsidy provisions for local road controlling authorities who cannot afford to pay for road fixes after a major event will penalise areas with high deprivation.
As an example the Buller District Council, a high deprivation area, was still recovering from the 2021 and 2022 storm events which represented about $16.5 million of capital works now being completed on its roads.
That had only been possible due to a bespoke 95% subsidy via the NZTA.
"Without this support the community of Buller ... would not have been able to deliver this return to service for our communities."
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Horse rider pleads for support to keep them safe on roads
A nationwide campaign to have horse-riders officially recognised as vulnerable road users has been offered supported by the West Coast’s Regional Transport committee.
The committee heard a presentation this month from equestrian safety advocate Julia McLean, who recently took a petition to Parliament on behalf of riding associations across the country.
The petition, signed by close to 9000 people, asks the government to recognise the vulnerability of horse riders in transport legislation.
“Currently we sit in the ‘other road user’ category and that gives no benefits whatsoever and most critically we are not included in education or road safety-messaging,” McLean said.
Horse-riders were continually dealing with reckless and dangerous behaviour by motorists, she told the committee.
“We get reports from our rider groups of horses being killed: there was one in Reefton, and another in Ruatoki; just two weeks ago a horse was hit and killed by a truck and the rider was taken to hospital."
Riders were also put at risk by aggressive drivers tooting their horns, winding down their windows and shouting, and passing at speed and too closely, she told the committee.
But unlike accidents involving pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users, such incidents involving horses were not captured in the statistics.
When she had asked NZTA for data, said said all it could tell her was that it had issued 13 infringements in 13 years, for failing to take care around a ridden animal or stock.
“When someone comes so close they touch your stirrup, or they hoot their horn as they go past ... it’s the abuse - it’s everywhere."
In a case down south, a truck driver refused to slow down despite hand signals and the rider fell off just in front of him, she said.
She had asked the road safety director for NZ Police to look at providing a ‘tick-box’ for horse-riders in incident reports, Ms McLean said.
“It’s a small, low-cost measure that would allow us to have some proper data, an informed understanding of what’s happening out there on the roads, and in turn some targeted road safety messaging.”
She was motivated to become a safety advocate by her own experience at the age of 25, when she fractured her skull in a near-fatal riding accident on a Kaiapoi road.
“I lost all memory of my childhood; my sense of taste and smell is gone forever. I was in a coma for week, I lost my career and it’s taken me 16 years to fully recover,” she told LDR.
Her accident had not been caused by a car: her horse had shied and thrown her when a piece of paper on the verge moved suddenly in the wind.
But the incident was a grim reminder of what could happen if a horse were startled, she said.
The UK and Australia had recently changed their road codes to give drivers explicit instructions on passing horses.
“It needs to be explicit. We can’t assume people just get it anymore. Common sense is not a thing. We actually have to tell people what we require, to pass a horse wide and slow - wide is two metres.”
A total of 37 organisations were now endorsing her campaign, including police, trucking companies, pony clubs and 10 other regional councils, McLean told the committee.
Transport Committee chairperson Peter Ewen was supportive of Ms McLeans safety campaign.
“In rural New Zealand we have a lot of narrow roads, and we do have riders on them – I would like to think that courtesy is given to those riders."
Regional council chairperson Peter Haddock said he sympathised with the cause but had reservations about riders on state highways.
“I would encourage it on low volume council roads but would struggle to support riding on highways where you’ve got traffic following closely behind.
“It’s difficult to find you suddenly have a horse in front of you and slowly pass it and go from 100kphs to 10kphs. It’s a dangerous situation."
McLean said horse riders did not want to ride on highways, and accidents were happening on 50kph local roads.
She appealed to West Coast mayors and chairs present to consider horse riders when they built shared pathways like cycle trails.
“We don’t need a hard surface, just a bit of dirt or grass at the side.”
The Transport Committee agreed to draft a letter to the national transport authorities, endorsing McLean’s safety campaign but stating its reservations about horses on highways.
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