David Elliott: Trucks on Marine Parade have damaging impact

David Elliott

As the election approaches, it's important to address the real issues facing Napier, and not allow ourselves to be sidetracked or distracted by speculation.

In the past three years, the Port of Napier has experienced exponential growth, thriving in the booming economy created by the National Government.

But that growth brings with it certain challenges, and one that has been consistently ignored for the past three years is the issue of heavy trucks pounding along Marine Parade, or bulldozing their way through quiet residential streets.

This has had a damaging impact on Napier, and on Napier residents.

These impacts include safety, the environment, and tourism.

There have been fatalities on the roads, the negative environmental impacts of port traffic in residential areas are well documented, air and noise pollution, structural impact in residential areas and more. And this is simply unacceptable.

As with any port city, Napier needs to reconcile the interests of the port with the interests of the city and its residents. The city council has made every effort to achieve this, something acknowledged by its recent award as a leading safe city. It's a great start but we need to build on that to achieve the best solution for Napier.

One key to that solution is infrastructural development.

At a time when the National Government is making unprecedented investment in infrastructure, it is a crying shame that the urgent needs of Napier are not being advocated enough. Let's get a bigger share of the pie spent on Napier.

What Napier needs, and it needs it now, is a strong voice in Wellington who has a sympathetic ear from Government.

Let's get the Government to fund this essential development, not you, the ratepayers.

As the National MP for Napier, this will be one of my priorities - working to make the roads of Napier safer for residents, for walkers, for cyclists and for tourists.

The port will continue to grow. Unless we attend to this issue now, these problems will be magnified many times over.

We need to look at ways to separate port traffic from the lives of Napier residents and tourists, and we need to take action.

The 2016 AIVP Conference stressed that "The aim is to build a city-port relationship that is responsive, resilient, and competitive, while also taking into account the needs of the local population and the environment."

That's a solution I want to achieve for Napier, and as your National MP, this issue will have my full attention.

David Elliott is the National Party candidate for Napier in the upcoming general elections.