I’m not a ‘local’ but I stand with Tararua District over the proposed toll

Part of the Te Ahu a Turanga Manawatū-Tararua Highway still under construction. What would this look like with tolls?

OPINION

I’ve heard it said that you only become a “local” when the last person who remembers you coming to live in an area passes on.

So I don’t think I can consider myself a “local” just yet, but like many other people in the last week, I am angry.

NZTA’s proposal to toll the Te Ahu a Turanga: Manawatū-Tararua highway is as some people have said, a slap in the face.

If it had planned to toll the road, this should have been mentioned from the beginning, when it was doing the business case. Not roughly 10 months from completion. Will it have to dig up the new surface just to put in infrastructure?

It’s not just the fact that this is not a new road, as NZTA and the Government seem to think, it’s that they seem determined to kick this district when it’s down.

Our average income for people in this district is low compared to other regions. While some might say it’s comparatively cheaper to live here, I disagree.

Because this is a rural community, there are certain services that we must travel outside of the district for, such as specialised healthcare or hospital visits, and some tertiary education. We have no public transport network or at least no regular transport between our towns and Palmerston North.

As our mayor says, there are high levels of socio-economic deprivation in this district.

I’m sure some will say that there are bigger issues at stake than a tolled road, but let me remind you that with tolls comes further costs, such as freight. If companies are paying more to transport goods via the highway, local businesses will pass on those costs to their customers. It is basic economics.

What I have been trying to get my head around is, if a resident needs emergency medical assistance and needs to be transported to hospital, or has to use the health shuttle to take them to Palmerston North Hospital, who will pay for the toll? Will they make an exception for emergency/health vehicles? At the end of the day, the majority of people cannot afford these extra costs.

We already have problems with infrastructure, and rates and/or rents becoming unaffordable. If the Saddle Road or Pahiatua Track are returned to Tararua District Council, who pays for the maintenance? Those roads were never built for the volume of traffic they’ve received over the past seven years. But there are people already talking about refusing to use the highway should the toll plan go ahead and instead using those alternate routes, which will end up costing ratepayers more.

I’m sure that would help the Government “recoup costs”.

The people who make the decisions in that funny-shaped building in Wellington need to think about the impact the decisions will have on communities like ours. It’s no good pretending they understand and empathise when the majority of them would probably not even know what it was like to live paycheque to paycheque and barely make ends meet. I am lucky enough now to be on the other side of it, but I do know what it’s like to have to sacrifice eating just to meet all my other costs.

As I said, I don’t think I can consider myself a local, but I stand with them.