Road request hits a dead end

Shooting Butts Rd residents are angry they have been told by the South Wairarapa District Council they will need to foot half the bill if they want the road sealed.

Frustrated at the dust and traffic, including trucks and boy racers, residents petitioned the council to get 600m of the road sealed but were told the council did not have the budget for it.

Whitney Griffiths, who has lived on the Martinborough road for about seven years, said fronting up with half the cost was not an option.

"If it was a private road that's not an issue, but it's a public road.

"Every truck, and short-cutter and drink-driver and hooligan comes down the road - why should we have to pay for that?"

The residents' petition states the dust generated by traffic is causing breathing complaints and contaminating tank water supply.

According to residents, the grading done on the road does not stop rutting, and during rainy periods the road turns into a "sea of mud".

With its slippery surface, the road is also attracting boy-racers, which Mr Griffiths said is a safety concern for regular "dog-walkers, joggers and pram-pushing mums", and visitors making their way to the Rapaki Hill walk.

A Carterton teenager was convicted of careless driving and drink-driving in June last year after he crashed through a Shooting Butts resident's fence, smashing into the water mains.

South Wairarapa District Council manager for infrastructure and services Mark Allingham said road sealing is an issue that comes up regularly.

"The difficulty is that we have submissions every year, and no one wants to pay for it.

"But the reality is traffic volumes haven't gotten higher, the commercial value of the road hasn't gotten higher and the communities haven't grown.

"If you don't get more cars and more development, sealing the road just puts a greater burden on ratepayers."

Mr Allingham said as well as the initial costs of sealing the road, the ongoing maintenance costs are high. "At the end of the day the entire district is footing the bill for a couple of people to have a sealed road." Two years ago NZ Transport Agency canned a subsidy which used to assist with the costs of new sealing on roads, which the council cited as one of the reasons they could not fully fund the sealing of Shooting Butts Rd.

The council have written to trucking company Martinborough Transport asking them to limit unnecessary transport along the road, and have started a list of priority roads for sealing when funding becomes available.

Mr Allingham said he has also drafted a policy on sealing of unsealed roads to assess whether or not it is worth council dollars.

The council said they would also look into lowering the speed limit along the road to reduce dust, as the road presently features an open road sign.