Hamilton City Council says Government funding reductions will have an impact on its ability to look after local footpaths and deliver planned projects to support safety, public transport, walking and cycling and other road improvements.
A report to Council’s Infrastructure and Transport Committee meeting last Thursday outlines what share of NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi’s (NZTA) National Land Transport Programme Hamilton will receive over the next three years.
Eligible transport projects in the city are typically co-funded with 51% coming from a NZTA subsidy and 49% from Council.
Committee Chair, Deputy Mayor Angela O’Leary said while some of the funding cuts weren’t entirely unexpected given the policy direction change from central Government, the severity of the cuts was still “a hard pill to swallow”.
“This funding decision amongst other things reduces our ability to look after what we’ve got. Things that I would consider core business like maintaining our footpaths is now not a priority from a Government perspective but we know it’s important for our residents,” said Cr O’Leary.
The Government funding will support a $5 million programme over three years for maintaining and renewing city footpaths, which is 72% less than the programme it supported in the previous three-year period.
While funding to maintain and operate Hamilton’s transport network (with the exception of walking and cycling) largely matched what Council requested, there were significant co-funding shortfalls required to improve the network, said the Deputy Mayor.
No co-funding was received for public transport infrastructure, leaving an $8 million gap over the next three years for bus shelters and other infrastructure improvements to support services run by Waikato Regional Council, including the Comet and Meteor bus services, she said.
“I understand that Waikato Regional Council has also not received the funding it requested to improve public transport services including the frequency of the city’s Comet and Meteor services or to provide new services into some areas of our fast-growing city.”
There was also no co-funding allocated to progressing long-term planning work for a future bus rapid transit network required to support population growth expected over the next 30-50 years in the subregion, including Waikato and Waipaa district.
There is a further $25 million funding hole over the next three years which would have delivered important walking and cycling connections for schools in the east and other key areas of the city and an $8 million shortfall for local road improvements.
Cr O’Leary said Council had already significantly reduced its transport programme during the development of its 2024-34 Long-Term Plan.
“It’s not completely back to the drawing board, but Elected Members will need to have some robust discussions about transport priorities and focus on what the community really needs. I for one would not want to see us completely abandon some of our basic footpath maintenance, as this will cause long-term problems for the city,” she said.
On the positive side, the Council says it was pleased to see a commitment to fund the extension of the Waikato Expressway to Piarere and the Southern Links project connecting Kahikatea Drive to the Expressway near Tamahere.
Probable funding has also been confirmed to assist the city to meet its planning designation commitments over the next three years for its Southern Links work in the Peacocke area and also for the design of the Ruakura Eastern Transport Corridor.
Staff will now look at options for either proceeding, reducing or deleting local road improvement programmes for Elected Members to consider, the Council said in a statement.
