RDRR Calls for a Strategic Roading Solution

The RDRR welcomes the government’s $24m decision to upgrade State Highway 30 and Te Ngae Road, especially a new roundabout at the Te Ngae and Tarawera Road intersection and four-laning sections of Te Ngae Road. It thanks Transport Minister Simon Bridges and Rotorua MP Todd McClay warmly, even though it is a solution that will only work for about 20 years.

“Rotorua’s residents and ratepayers have a long-standing grievance about the congestion on Te Ngae Road and how it has impeded development and exports from our forestry, tourism and agribusiness sectors,” Cr Searancke said. “Successive councils have recognised that Te Ngae Road upgrades will only work in the medium-term so they have progressively purchased about 80 per cent of the land needed for the Rotorua Eastern Arterial route (SH30) designated in 1964.”

The RDRR understands that three groups, Hurunga te Rangi, To Roro o te Rangi and Ngati Uenukukopako, now want the REA designation ended so they can manage or develop the land as they wish. But it considers it most unhelpful for the Mayor to pander to their expectations by, once again, posing a ‘historic injustice that needs to be addressed.’

Recalling the Mayor’s support for the REA before her election, the RDRR flatly rejects the Mayor’s recent attempt to highjack the debate on behalf of the three groups, ignoring the interests of all other groups.

“Fortunately, the New Zealand Transport Agency will continue to investigate options for Rotorua’s long-term transport networks’, said Rosemary MacKenzie. “There have been many different solutions to this type of problem in other districts around New Zealand that are worth considering.”

The RDRR urges the three groups to take a less combative position and for the Mayor to reinstate inclusive and democratic policy making processes in Council so that all elected councillors can better understand and help reconcile the views of diverse communities of interest in the Rotorua District.

“But if a deeply divisive ‘battle’ now unfolds, with the partisan support of the current Mayor, a future Council may have to advise the NZTA to go to the Environment Court to obtain a strategic roading solution for Rotorua.”

ENDS

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