Transport Funding

In October last year the Council had to revise its roading programme after a drop in co-funding from NZ Transport Agency.

The cost of building and maintaining local roads is shared between central government, through NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and local councils.

NZTA contributes to local roads from taxes whereas councils contribute from rates and borrowing, in what is known as the ‘local share’.

Councils’ set new projects and maintenance budgets for these assets in the Long Term and Annual Plans while waiting for confirmation of co-funding from NZTA. If funding isn’t delivered at the expected level this requires a re-budget and re-prioritisation.

In the last Long Term Plan, Waimakariri District Council asked NZTA for a $9.5m contribution towards roading improvement projects. NZTA allocated $0.7m — leaving a shortfall of $8.82m for roading improvements.

For road maintenance Council received only $49.8m of the $59m needed to maintain our districts roads.

Overall, this left the Council with a $13.5m gap within its budgeted operational and capital programme over three years to 2026/27.

Council instructed staff to rejig, reduce-scope, and progress some projects to design stage only to work within the available budget, this is what is now reflected in the Draft Annual Plan.

We know that many people in the community are feeling the pinch. Because of this our non-negotiable was not to increase costs overall and to live within our budget. What we’ve done is re-prioritise and defer work to a level that stayed within budget.

The council added $0.93m for a small programme of works including minor safety improvements for schools, high-risk rural intersections, roadside hazard removal and improvements at Fernside Road /Todds Road intersection.

It did this by delaying several other projects in future years which did not get funding through the National Land Transport Fund, noting these can be reconsidered in this Draft Annual Plan.

These projects are listed below.

The complete list of projects is available in the full Draft Annual Plan.