Road plans raise urban sprawl fears

Pressure for more roads to both the south and north is jeopardising Auckland Regional Council's efforts to contain urban sprawl, councillors believe.

The council's transport policy committee called yesterday for closer oversight of a southern sector transport strategy study after officials referred roading proposals to "key stakeholders" for comment.

It will ask Manukau City Council to organise an urgent meeting of a "political sounding board" for the officials and to defer the November 3 deadline for submissions.

The committee also wants potential concerns to be referred back to it, "to enable an appropriate policy direction to be established".

Papakura and Franklin regional councillor Dianne Glenn was worried that before yesterday she had little idea of what the group's findings were likely to be, having missed a meeting of the sounding board while overseas.

The officials include representatives of the regional council and Transit New Zealand as well as Manukau City and Papakura and Franklin district councils.

Their study has identified a need to widen the Southern Motorway, to build new or upgraded interchanges between Manurewa and the other side of Drury, and to investigate an alternative eastern arterial route from there to Flatbush and possibly further north.

Mrs Glenn is not opposed in principle to these proposals, especially a link from Mill Rd east of Papakura to State Highway 22 from Pukekohe, across the Southern Motorway at Quarry Rd, south of Drury.

She said a political decision was needed, before a site could be chosen for "park and ride" facilities for an extension of commuter rail to Drury.

But other councillors were alarmed at a lower-priority recommendation from the officials about a potential road link across the Manukau Harbour from Weymouth to Karaka.

The group acknowledged this would have significant environmental effects but said it would hook into Auckland's western ring route and reduce traffic flows along the Southern Motorway from Franklin.

It recommended that the Manukau and Franklin councils examine the level of planning protection for a harbour crossing "to ensure that the opportunity to implement this link is not precluded".

But councillor Sandra Coney said the environmental impact would be too great. Fellow Waitakere representative Paul Walbran feared protecting the route would put development pressure on Karaka, contrary to the regional growth strategy of limiting urban sprawl.

Councillors were also concerned about a draft transport strategy for Rodney District, which Ms Coney said "is very much a road-based strategy".

Rodney regional councillor Christine Rose was disappointed the strategy said nothing about extending passenger trains to western Rodney, concentrating instead on improved bus services to the proposed Westgate growth centre.

Regional council chairman Mike Lee said pressure for a toll road to Whangaparaoa Peninsula across the Weiti River would not go away and he called for improvements to public transport.