K (Guru) Gurunathan, a leading candidate for Paraparaumu Ward says KCDC and New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) have failed to uphold one of the key protocols the community had stipulated to legitimise KCDC’s participation as a member of the Alliance contractors for the Sandhills Expressway project.
“Concern and alarm expressed by property owners about NZTA contractors undertaking exploratory drilling for the Expressway near their homes is a clear indicator of this failure.”
Mr Gurunathan says in February 2010 Kāpiti Coast District councillors approved a strategic criterion which stated: “Protocols being adopted by the Alliance which recoginises and allows for Council’s duty to work in a transparent manner with the community and tangata whenua.”
Following a series of public workshops the above criteria upholding council’s “duty to work in a transparent manner with the community” was reiterated by council in its April 2010 meeting.
“It’s alarming to now find that affected home owners like David Sparrow and David Hare of Smithfield Road, and Colin Baxter of Te Moana Road were not informed by KCDC or NZTA that drilling would be carried out outside their homes to explore possible routes outside of the Western Link Road designation,” says Mr Gurunathan.
In the Puriri, Kauri and Te Moana roads area alone any deviation could see more that 30 properties directly affected.
The ‘Guiding Objectives for the Alliance Board’ adopted by KCDC on September 16 claims the alliance contract provided for a “collaborative way of working”. Mr Gurunathan says the public cannot be confident this is being delivered.
The September 16 council paper states that although the criterion was discussed with NZTA no formal confirmation has been sought from NZTA to include this as a condition of membership of the Alliance.
“Public confidence and trust in the Alliances’ ‘collaborative way of working’ is critical. I call on Mayor Jenny Rowan and sitting councillors to carry out its duty and take the necessary steps to ensure NZTA does not continue to run roughshod over the community.
“There is additional information the community needs to know. My sources say that NZTA is also considering designing a flyover the Takamore waahi tapu site. It’s not known if this would be acceptable to Takamore Trustees or if the balance of costs against other options, including compensation to affected property owners, would fit within NZTA’s tightening funding envelope.”
Transport Minister Steven Joyce is on public record during his briefing to Kāpiti councillors last year on the Expressway that money was not a problem. NZTA, however, has included an additional objective into the Guiding Objectives for the Alliance Board. This Objective 13 is called “Value for Money” which was added to demonstrate the project “will need to meet NZTA’s funding objectives for state and local networks”.
