Jane Nees BOP Regional Councillor www.janenees.co.nz

Late last month the government announced its allocations for transport expenditure over the next three years.

Each region across the country developed a Regional Land Transport Programme which it put forward to central government for consideration in the development of the National Land Transport Programme (NLTP). The NLTP outlines both New Zealand Transport Agency and local authority transport investment in our roading networks, public transport, walking and cycling, and transport planning.

Given the economic situation and already committed project investment, we always knew funding in the NLTP was going to be constrained and that it would focus on creating transport solutions to support economic growth, improve safety, and deliver the best possible value for money.

In the Bay of Plenty, we didn't get all we were asking for in our Regional Land Transport Programme, but we did extraordinarily well in comparison with many other parts of the country. The approximately $800 million programme of transport investment in the NLTP for the Bay of Plenty represents a substantial increase in investment for the region overall – reflecting the BOP region as a key contributor to New Zealand's economy.

It includes the completion of the Tauranga Eastern Link and progression of high priority improvement projects including the Maunganui-Girven Intersection, Hairini Link – Stage 4, and the Rotorua Eastern Arterial. An investment of $265 million will be made in maintenance, operations and renewals on the whole network, with $136 million of this on local roads – an increase of five per cent on investment in the 2009-12 period. We also received funding for investigations in high priority projects which will set us up for progressing them when the economy starts to improve.

A focus for the future will be to try and make sure the funding we have available for transport goes as far as possible. A project is being initiated to investigate and identify opportunities to collaborate across the region on road maintenance and renewals contracts – with an aim of maximising efficiency and effectiveness of our transport spend. Collaboration at a local government level is what we are good at in the Bay of Plenty and I look forward to some positive outcomes for the region from this project.

If you have any views on this or any other issue, please contact me on [email protected] or ring me on 07 579-5150. Or you can check out my website at www.janenees.co.nz