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Waitaki District Mayor Gary Kircher is wondering what the new government is doing for the people of the district.
The council said, in a release yesterday, after the decision by Transport Minister Simeon Brown to discontinue funding for the Transport Choices programme, it would be forced to abandon planned changes for streets and footpaths in Oamaru.
The council had plans for 13 upgraded side-road entrances, with flat crossing places for pushchairs and mobility vehicles, between Orwell St and Stirling St in the north end of Oamaru.
There would also have been additional refuge crossings on Thames Highway and an upgrade of the Harlech St zebra crossing to a lights-controlled crossing.
It would also have seen four-way light-controlled crossings at the intersection between Thames Highway and Redcastle Rd, and the dog-leg intersection involving Thames Highway, Arundel St and Regina Lane. This would have provided additional safe crossing points and managed traffic issues.
The project was intended to provide pupils at Waitaki Boys’ High School, Waitaki Girls’ High School, St Kevin’s College, Oamaru Intermediate School and Pembroke School with safer walking and cycling routes to school.
The level side-road entrances would also have benefited older residents, including those at aged-care facilities in the area.
While this project was wholly funded by the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) through the Climate Emergency Response Fund, council staff invested significant time and effort to bring the project close to contract.
However, with the ministerial instruction to NZTA to end its work on these programmes, and not to commit any further funding to local authorities, no further progress could be made on these plans.
Mr Kircher said this was an opportunity to actually do something that would significantly benefit the community and ratepayer money would not be needed.
‘‘This win:win project has been taken away from us, so the question now is, ‘what is the government going to do to help Waitaki thrive?’.’’
Council assets operations manager Joshua Rendell said he was disappointed to receive notice the government had cancelled funding for the Transport Choices programme.