By SCOTT MacLEOD
Highway managers say out-of-date figures were used in a study that found that less money was being spent on Auckland roads.
The study, by the Auckland Business Forum, found a sharp drop in the amount of money Government agency Transfund had given Auckland for roading in the past three
years.
But Transit New Zealand said yesterday that the figures seemed to have been taken from National Roading Programme documents which did not include some later financing boosts.
The amount expected to be spent on improving Auckland highways in the 2001-02 this year was $109 million, not the $55.1 million given in the study, or a $500,000 jump on the year before.
Transit chief executive Robin Dunlop said no work on improving Auckland's highways had been held up in the past year through lack of financing, and the Forum had "misconstrued" the facts.
Auckland Business Forum chairman Michael Barnett said Transit's response was "interesting" because he was not aware of any notification that figures given in the Roading Programme had changed, "unless they did it this morning".
Road Transport Forum chief executive Tony Friedlander said he checked the Business Forum's figures before they were released and had never seen any announcement of the change.
