Roading is Council’s biggest asset and biggest spend of ratepayers money.

 Understandably the condition of our roads is one of the biggest concerns raised by ratepayers.

 With 1200km of our 1600km road network being unsealed it is a big area to maintain.

 At the start of this term our roading maintenance was not working. Maintenance had been run down during the commissioner era and the leadership of the previous council neglected maintenance in order to keep rates artificially low.

 Our Council resolved to take decisive action.

 1.      We withdrew from the Northland Transportation Alliance (NTA) which was running our roading out of an office in Whangarei, and brought control back in-house.

2.      We went back to the market and changed our roading maintenance contractor to Downer

3.      We required Downer to use local contractors for 30 percent of the work – using people with local reputations to maintain and keeping more money in our local communities

4.      We set up a roading governance group to ensure collaboration between the contractor, staff and elected council.

5.      We required the engagement of a roading technical specialist to find innovative and efficient ways to deal with slip repairs and building resilience into the network.

6.      We have reviewed development contributions (growth levies) for high growth areas to ensure that ‘growth pays for growth”. New lots in the Kaiwaka and Mangawhai area (subject to final Council confirmation) will now pay $11,220 per lot.

7.      We have fixed legacy issues where upgrading has not kept up with growth – sealing Devich Rd and part Settlement Rd, and fixing the underengineered part of Cames Rd (to be completed this spring)

8.      We have allocated funding to the revitalisation of urban Dargaville’s roads and footpaths.

We have not fixed everything overnight. However the roads overall are now in much better shape and ratepayer feedback confirms this.

The next steps we have planned are –

1.      Ensuring our asset management plan is properly aligned with our objectives – a strong focus on improving and building resilience into the network

2.      Further catch up on legacy growth issues that have been neglected, and allocating growth levies to these upgrades. Investigation is underway on other impacted roads including pavement strengthening and sealing of King Rd and Spioenkop Rd.

3.      Investigating funding for footpath improvements in smaller towns including Kaiwaka, Mangawhai, Paparoa and Ruawai

4.      Reviewing the programmed business case for roading to have a properly considered future plan for the roading network.

 Thank you for your patience as we work through making these improvements. I look forward to advancing this work further in the next term.