John Williamson: Northland needs to get behind Brynderwyns plans, not attack them

Excavators at work near Waterfall Corner as part of roading resilience work under way in the Brynderwyn Hills.

OPINION

It has been a great season but grass growth is slowing down and it was obvious that 16 mouths would not make it through the winter on a small hectare of grass.

Seven of these mouths would have lambs in a few months’ time, so last year’s lambs had to go. That was the message the grandchildren received last week.

“But not Mary,” was the plaintive reply. Yep - the Wellsford sale is on Tuesday.

Just to explain, Mary is a gold-plated lamb who should not be here. Her mother abandoned her at birth and she spent her first night in a sorry state by the fire. Even with being force-fed home-made colostrum, she didn’t look good.

“Put her out of her misery,” I was told.

“We’ll see how she is in the morning,” I replied.

Miraculously, she survived the night and after a vet visit - $120 of antibiotics, energy fluids and the colostrum later - she gradually came right. An $80 bag of milk replacement was bought and Mary was bottle-fed for six months to use it all up. She has a debt to repay.

So Mary was again on the block but grandson Alex had a plan. I arrived home from bowls on the Monday to be presented with two cans of Irish stew with lamb, and a packet of liquorice bullets that look strangely like sheep droppings, as a trade for Mary.

The sacrifices we make!

The deal was done and Mary stayed. She may be productive in the future, based on the ram’s current interest. He isn’t her father, for the purists out there.

Tuesday last week had us with a trailer-load of six lambs heading to Wellsford. The Brynderwyns were out and the Mangawhai road is a bit interesting with a loaded trailer in a hurry.

We made it on time: $70 each for the lambs. That’s compared to $105 at the same sale three years ago. I wistfully reflected on the sale of my own pet lamb 70 years earlier. The stock agent assured me he would look after Topsy.

But the three quid return assuaged the brief moment of grief - that’s $189 in today’s money. How times have changed - a reflection about how difficult it is for sheep farmers right now.

But, back to the Brynderwyns. We came back through Paparoa-Oakleigh and it is great to see that both alternate routes have been upgraded pretty well in preparation for the Brynderwyns closure.

Both roads were busy which does raise the question about how much business Northland is really losing as a result of the Brynderwyn closure. It is inconvenient but we all make sacrifices for a greater good!

This closure was a long considered and consulted decision of the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) board to future-proof the resilience of the highway for the next 10 years. They considered a number of alternatives in coming to that decision.

It is very disappointing, therefore, to see the chair of Northland Regional Transport Committee (RTC) Joe Carr attacking the decision describing it as “a fiasco and unjustifiable,” as if he is the fount of all knowledge in the matter of this complex roading decision.

To get the context right. The Brynderwyns are part of State Highway 1, wholly owned by NZTA and the NZTA board make all decisions in respect to that. They seek input and consultation and the RTC is an important component of that.

The Brynderwyns alternative and /or upgrade is specifically identified in the coalition agreement and the Government Policy Statement on Transport for the next 10 years. The Regional Transport Committee needs to have it in its Regional Land Transport Plan to assure full government funding and the chair should be absolutely supporting the plan, not railing against it.

So, as Northlanders, lets support the Wellington-based board in voting significant funds to make Northland’s most important road as resilient as possible as part of the “Roads Of National Significance”.

The Brynderwyns are clearly on the national political radar and we don’t need local grandstanding to compromise that.