Strong poll support for highway

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Aucklanders strongly support the proposed eastern highway, giving the scheme's biggest cheerleaders, Auckland City Mayor John Banks and Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis, a political boost in the lead-up to the local body elections.

A Herald-DigiPoll survey of 1000 people - half in Auckland City and the rest from the wider region - has found 60.8 per cent in favour of a highway through the eastern suburbs and 25.1 per cent against.

The poll also found 66.7 per cent of people favoured financing it with tolls, and 27 per cent against.

In Auckland City, the poll found 59.6 per cent support and slightly greater opposition at 29.2 per cent. Support for tolls in Auckland City was much the same as in the region - 66.2 per cent support and 25.3 per cent against.

The poll comes a week after Mr Banks and Sir Barry unveiled a scaled-back proposal costing between $1.1 billion and $1.4 billion with an admission from Mr Banks that the previous $4 billion scheme was huge, ugly and unaffordable.

The proposal, which reduces traffic to 50km/h on long stretches and to a two-lane bridge across Hobson Bay, failed to placate critics, such as the new anti-highway Action Hobson political ticket, and upset the Automobile Association for compromising the needs of motorists.

Sir Barry said he was not surprised by the poll, saying people had had a gutsful of sitting on motorways and arterial roads going nowhere and wanted the highway built as soon as possible.

Mr Banks found the poll "very encouraging". Now there were some "clear skies" on the project, more work was needed to refine the proposal, cost, funding and the urban revitalisation benefits it would bring to eastern Auckland and the wider regional economy, he said.

Mr Banks, who stated his mayoralty would "stand or fall on his ability to turn the eastern corridor into a motorway as soon as possible", denied the hacked-back scheme was a backdown.

"Calling it a motorway or a corridor, as far as I'm concerned, is semantics. I don't want to split straws. Everyone knows that if you vote for me I am committed to completing Auckland's motorway network, including the eastern transport corridor," he said.

Mr Banks said his main rival, Dick Hubbard, was on public record saying he did not support motorway network completion, including the eastern transport corridor.

Mr Hubbard said his stand was plain. The first item in his advertisement announcing his candidacy was support for a "scaled-down, realistic and affordable version" of the eastern highway.