Vince Cocurullo: Cyclones, expressway, renewables - What have we achieved in three years?

Northland Regional Transport Committee chairman Joe Carr, Whangārei list MP Dr Shane Reti, Transport Minister Chris Bishop and Northland MP Grant McCallum talk about the preferred route for the Northland Expressway. Photo / Dean Purcell

Opinion

• The council tackled major weather events, impacting budgets and communities, with government aid for repairs.
• The four-laning of SH1 and rail connectivity projects is progressing, boosting Northland’s economy.
• Northland is advancing in renewable energy and infrastructure resilience, with significant projects under way.

Looking back on the last three years, I can honestly say that in my first term as mayor, this council and elected members worked hard, fought hard, and achieved a lot, even with the ever-changing government legislations.

As we head into the elections period, it is only normal for councils to be under even more scrutiny than usual. Setting the rates, deciding on capital projects, even delivering events – everything comes under the microscope, and every decision is debated at length.

During my term as mayor, we’ve dealt with a lot. Devastating weather events like Cyclone Hale, Cyclone Gabrielle (and the severe floods that followed) brought Northland to its knees. The costs of repairing and rebuilding are still having an impact on every aspect of our council’s budget, which in turn has affected our communities. It was great to have our Government step up and help with the Brynderwyns and the Mangamuka repairs, as I believe this was long overdue.

One of my biggest campaigns, apart from stopping Three Waters, was for the four-laning of SH1 between Auckland and Whangārei as I knew the economic benefit this one project would give to Northland.

Unfortunately, it took the prolonged closure of the Brynderwyns to really get Central Government to understand. When we received the news that our Government had approved the four-lane Northland Expressway, it felt like all those years of pushing had met success – we were being heard at last!

Back in 2023, all the Northland mayors and chair of the Regional Council signed a statement of commitment, which included the top five priorities for Northland and I’m proud to say that we are well on our way to achieving many of these targets.

We agreed to connecting Northland, which included the four-laning of the highway to Auckland as well as rail connectivity to Northport via the Marsden Point Rail Link and expanding the container handling facility at Northport. In a recent update, I was told that Kiwirail is close to completing and activating the Kauri-Otiria line, with detailed design of the Marsden Point Rail Link on track.

An artist's impression of the proposed expansion at Northport, now on the fast track list (Image: NZME)

We also identified the need to improve our infrastructure resilience to cope with our changing climate; which for Whangārei, has resulted in initiatives such as new water storage tanks, larger gauge stormwater pipe replacements, and urban flood relief projects, such as the one under way in Morningside.

The 2023 priorities talked about the need for Northland having independent power generation, and this was brought to the Government’s notice in June 2024 by a contracting error that toppled a pylon, cutting power to our region and exposing the transmission network’s vulnerability.

Northland is now well on the way to becoming a total renewable energy producer, with a major geothermal plant at Ngāwhā, a solar farm near Kaitāia (which was the largest in the country when it opened in 2024), a wind farm north of Dargaville (with New Zealand’s largest turbines), and a 100MW battery storage system at Ruakākā with a 250,000-panel solar farm that will produce up to 230GWh of energy per year. This has been amazing progress in just three years and reinforces our commitment to regional resilience.

Aerial view of Meridian's $186million battery Energy Storage System (BESS) at Ruakākā, south of Whangārei. Photo / Meridian Energy

The statement of commitment prioritised a sustainable economy for Northland, focusing on big ticket items like the dry dock at Northport, development of Marsden Point and the repurposing of the Marsden Point refinery.

We committed to the creation of regional education centres for innovation and sustainability, and we promised to support Northland businesses to achieve sustainable growth. This meant joining the Joint Regional Economic Group (Northland Inc) which in turn helps promote Northland’s tourism and development opportunities.

Whangārei recently held our first community consultation on the proposed Knowledge, Education and Arts (KEA) Hub, and Whangārei’s new regional base hospital will be started in 2026.

Over the past three years, I have been proud to be Mayor of Whangārei and chair of the Northland Mayoral Forum. Having been involved in getting many of these projects over the line, I know it is only through hard work, perseverance, and working together that we have been able to achieve these great things for Whangārei, and I know many more are on the horizon.