Halswell Councillor Andrei Moore has pushed back against comments made by Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger, who told chrislynchmedia.com that Christchurch is “absolutely” getting its fair share of transport funding from the Government.
Speaking in an interview, with chrislynchmedia.com Mayor Mauger said the council was given $90 million more “than what we asked for, for our transport side of things, so I can’t complain. I think we’re doing all right.”
He was referring to funding reallocated after the 2023 election. “I was standing next to Michael Wood when he announced the $78 million down by the Bus Exchange, which was all good, and it was only about four months before the election.
“Then the election came out, and we were given $94,000 to do a business case. And then after the election, it was sort of, didn’t take much reading of the tea leaves to see that this money may quietly fall out the bottom or not be there.
“So we worked on doing a sort of a light business case. We gave the $94,000 back because we knew we didn’t need it. And then in about December last year, it came out that the money was not there, and it was going to Brougham Street and the wee bit to the Ashburton bridge, and some of it will probably end up a little bit in Pages Road Bridge as well.”
But Councillor Moore told chrislynchmedia.com “I just feel like both Labour and National governments haven’t stepped up with transport funding for Christchurch over the decades and we need to be strong advocates to change that otherwise it’s about time we got a regional fuel tax discount.”
On his Facebook page Moore said ““I disagree with the Mayor’s comment that Christchurch is ‘absolutely’ getting its fair share of transport funding from Central Government. We’re absolutely not and just had $78 million stolen which we need to demand back.”
Moore also pointed to comments made by former Environment Canterbury Chair Peter Scott, who said in September last year, “Despite being the country’s second largest region, we’re receiving just over seven percent of total national contestable funding. More than last time, but disappointing, when you look at the metrics. The level of investment in Canterbury needs to be on par with our population, road network length, and contribution to GDP (ours is around 12 percent).
“Many low-cost, low-risk improvements sought by our local communities have been declined, while larger state highway projects get the go-ahead. That’s not a good enough balance.
