Auckland Transport pings mayor for his approach to fixing city problems

The council agency Auckland Transport (AT) has openly criticised the way the mayor Wayne Brown is going about seeking change to the planning and governance transport in the city.

The agency board has agreed that change is needed, but said the mayor had not consulted with it on his ideas, and said it did not support the council taking back from AT, the job of creating the statutory 10-year plan called the Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP).

AT said government support for the necessary law change was unproven, and it “may in fact work against the progress that could be made with the other recommendations”.

Brown’s specific ideas for seeking a law change were put before councillors for approval on Thursday, but AT’s chair Wayne Donnelly noted the agency had not been consulted.

“As a Board our usual desire is to have a strategic governance conversation and form a collaborative view on matters such as this, and then put a joint recommendation to Council.”

Brown wants to unwind a unique structure created when Auckland was amalgamated in 2010, in which the formal transport planning role was taken out of political control, and given to AT which operates at arms-length.

Donnelly agreed the current structure of different plans, local and central government bodies, and funding from different pots was a problem, and that better integration was needed.

He highlighted a string a major projects where a disconnect between partners would deliver a less than perfect result.

• On the City Rail Link, council could not yet afford to put the stations on its books and may exclude it from running the stations on the network.
• The project may open (in 2026) with level crossings unable to handle traffic flows.
• Waka Kotahi has opened motorway improvements at Albany, but AT lacks funding to complete a bus interchange for a future busway station at Rosedale.
• New stations in South Auckland will work for trains but lack passenger connection facilities.
• Waka Kotahi will build the Penlink highway at Whangaparaoa, but there’s no money for a bus connection to the northern busway.

The mayor’s chief of staff Max Hardy told councillors the law change idea had been taken up by the previous mayor Phil Goff, but the government had indicated that drafting a change wouldn’t be a priority, hence the option of the council drafting a “local bill” and having an MP introduce it.

Hardy said several Auckland MP’s had expressed a willingness to lodge a local bill.

Donnelly’s letter to the mayor prompted a more collaborative approach when councillors considered the mayor’s plan, mid-Thursday afternoon.

Additional clauses to what they voted on included the staff of AT and the council working more closely on the RLTP, and that the mayor, senior councillors and staff work closely with AT’s board and management on developing the law change proposal.

Councillors voted unanimously in favour of pursuing the mayor’s local bill idea.