Tauranga's NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell has clashed with Transport Minister Simon Bridges in Parliament over the recently completed Tauranga Eastern Link.

In a statement released this afternoon, Mitchell accused the minister of 'congratulating himself and the current government” for bringing the TEL project forward by 10 years.

NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell. Photo: File.

According to Mitchell, however, Tauranga MP Bridges failed to mention the 35-year toll that the National Party have placed on the road.

'Given that the Government stated they would have funded the project in ten years, how can they justify tolling the people of Tauranga for 35 years?” asked Clayton.

'If the Government wants to place a toll on the road to help mitigate their costs, they could do so for 10 years, not 35.

'A 35 year toll will unnecessarily force Tauranga residents to pay for the project many times over.

'This Government is all rhetoric, pretending to give us something that in actual fact, we are giving ourselves.

'The Minister can applaud himself all he likes. I will reserve my applause for the people of Tauranga – the one's actually footing the bill.”

Bridges, who was prompted on the subject in parliament by Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller, dismissed Mitchell's claims as 'quite incorrect”.

'I'm happy to tell the member (Mitchell), who I know like myself lives in Tauranga, that after years of neglect, this government is delivering hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure projects to the people of the Bay of Plenty.”

In 2009, the New Zealand Transport Agency asked Bay of Plenty residents for their thoughts on tolling the TEL as part of the public consultation process, with more than 90 per cent in support of that option.