West Coast suffering from transport funding squeeze - leaders

West Coast leaders say the share of investment in transport in the region does not reflect the infrastructure challenges.

Westland Mayor Helen Lash and former long-serving West Coast Regional Transport Committee chairman Peter Ewen say the Coast faces significant challenges with roading.

A new report commissioned by the South Island Regional Transport Committee Chairs Group highlights the South Island contribution to the economy.

It shows the South Island outperformed North Island in terms of GDP growth, with the south recording a 1.2% GDP growth compared to 0.2% growth in in the south in March.

Mrs Lash said the West Coast had not received a fair share of the transport funding as roads were being damaged due to the increasing size of trucks.

"The truck sizes are increasing, the number of axles on heavy trucks are increasing, so the damage to our roads is increasing and that is where I think things have gotten out of skew very quickly.

"New Zealand is complex. We have got a huge amount of roading that connects everybody to somewhere else. And our roading structure and network is growing far quicker than what needs to be reinvested back in to keep it at a balance."

Mrs Lash said the roading corridors on the South Island had been underfunded.

"They are showing signs of insufficient maintenance funding going into them."

The transport report found the South Island recorded $25.5 billion in good exports, accounting for 33% of the national total, as well as 40% of New Zealand's total international visitor spending.

The West Coast recorded the third highest international visitor spending in the South Island -- $372m compared to $191m in Tasman and $369m in Southland.

West Coast exports totalled $1.5 billion annually, compared to $1.8 billion in Marlborough, $1.6 billion in Tasman, $11.7 billion in Canterbury, $4.1 billion in Otago and $4 billion in Southland.

In return, the Coast received $73m from the South Island National Land Transport Fund, against $527m for Canterbury, $277m for Otago and $105m for Southland. Only Marlborough, Tasman and Nelson received lower funding than the West Coast.

Mr Ewen, who chaired the West Coast Regional Transport Committee for 15 years before stepping down two months ago due to disagreement over funding priorities, said given the geographic challenges the region was underfunded.

"Not for our constraints and the challenges we have got with weather, geography, number of bridges, vegetation issues. Our roading seal, subject to the weather, would break down a lot quicker than Canterbury."

Mr Ewen said the funding squeeze would force councils on the Coast to resort to using gravel for some roads.

"They have got to seal dozens of kilometres, that sealing will not be done in the future because there won't be the money. They will just revert back to gravel, or the farmers will have to do it because the district councils have not got the money now."

Mr Ewen said the threatened cuts to special purpose road funding (Jackson Bay and Karamea), and the subsidy cuts for Total Mobility illustrated the lack of investment.

"These roads remain under threat with Wellington's entrenched cut, cut mentality."

He also criticised the 10% cut to Total Mobility, which provides subsidised taxi rides to the elderly and disability sector.

"They recently did that with a significant drop in the Total Mobility subsidy, yet we don't have any public transport here. That cut was unwarranted, extremely disappointing."

West Coast Regional Transport Committee new chairman Ashley Cassin said tourism on the Coast hinges on road connectivity.

"The resilience challenges are really difficult for a region like ours. A slip at the wrong time of the year, the bridge going out at the wrong time of the year completely decimates our tourism industry and it really hurts our reputation."

Previous closures of the Haast Pass highway has cost the tourism sector $90m a month, Mr Cassin said, referring to the massive cliffside slip near Knights Point, between Bruce Bay and Haast.

"The Knights Point (slip) is being worked on by NZTA, which is a key one for us as both transporters of goods but also of tourists and that main tourist flow, which is important for the Coast, but is also important for the South Island."

New Zealand Transport Agency director of regional relationships James Caygill said transport funding was allocated based on "problems that need solving" rather than the amount of money earned through a particular sector of the economy.

"The Government policy statement on land transport dictates how and it is always allocated to outcomes. It is problems that need solving, that is not the same thing as saying, 'this is where the money comes from'."

Mr Caygill said a region needed to demonstrate that a particular sector needs more money than the other sectors.

"It needs to demonstrate that it has projects that solve problems that Government wants to solve."