Rival says John Banks 'stalled' motorway

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Auckland City Mayor John Banks was yesterday accused by one of his challengers of stalling extensions to the Southwestern Motorway by wasting time and energy on his pet eastern highway project.

The criticism came from mayoral contender Christine Fletcher as she joined Mr Banks and fellow candidate Bruce Hucker in welcoming a decision by Transfund to grant $309 million to extend the motorway through Mt Roskill and Manukau.

Mr Banks claimed a personal victory, saying he was committed to completing Auckland's entire motorway network in 10 years.

"Under my leadership more progress has been made in the past 30 months than the previous 30 years."

But Mrs Fletcher, whom he ousted from office at the last election, said construction of the southwestern links would have well under way had Mr Banks not spent so much time "fiddling his thumbs" on his eastern flank.

"He could have put a lot more advocacy into speeding up State Highway 20," she said of the southwestern link route, which will eventually offer a complete south-north bypass of central Auckland.

Dr Hucker said State Highway 20, offering an alternative to congestion on the harbour bridge, was a superior alternative to "a far too costly road to nowhere".

But the City Vision coalition leader came under fire for his support for the Southwestern Motorway from a Green member of his own ticket, Eden-Albert Community Board candidate Phil Chase.

Mr Chase, who chairs a network of neighbourhood groups opposed to the march of motorway construction through local communities, said it was hypocritical of Dr Hucker to want to protect green spaces on one side of the city while sacrificing them elsewhere.

He said the Mt Roskill extension would be choked with traffic from day one, motorways were a "dinosaur" response to congestion, and the only solution was public transport.

He criticised Transit New Zealand for wanting to build the road little more than 20m from Mt Roskill Grammar, saying this was against international best practice of keeping motorways 200m from schools.

It would expose staff and pupils to ill-health from fumes and noise.

But principal Ken Rapson said last night he had been assured by Transit that pollution would be less than that already generated by traffic bottlenecks on local roads around his and two neighbouring schools.

To complete the circle, Mr Banks hit out last night at a "Neanderthal" call by Green MP Keith Locke for opponents of the motorway to consider a judicial review against Transfund's decision.

In a press statement headed "Dreadlocks equals gridlocks", Mr Banks accused the Green Party of promoting paralysis and challenged it to put up a mayoral candidate.