Your civic (excise) duty: Auckland, we'll swap you a tram for a bridge

Saturday, 1 September 2018

Auckland, have your tram, but one good turn deserves another, so how about a hand with our new bridge?

With the excise duty of fuel about to go up in September, people in Marlborough are starting to think how the extra cost will take money from their pockets. 

And with talk the increase will fund trams in Auckland, Blenheim locals have some ideas about how the favour could be returned. 

A little help with the new Grove Rd bridge? Or that cycleway from Picton to Kaikōura? Even some work on our rougher roads, what do you say Aucklanders? 

**READ MORE

* Rising fuel costs put pressure on primary healthcare in rural Marlborough

* Picton the place to go for lower priced petrol

* South Island petrol prices climb nearly three times as much as North Island, figures show**

The Government is raising the excise duty on petrol by 10.5 cents per litre over the next two years. The first increase of 3.5 cents per litre will roll out on September 30. 

Transport Minister Phil Twyford said last month the tax was needed to fill a multibillion-dollar hole in the already-established Auckland transport plan.

The hole - acknowledged and accepted by National - was about $5b.

Twyford said the tax would be used to fund roading improvements, busways, Mill Road and Penlink, and public transport initiatives.

The highest profile feature of the $28b Auckland Transport Plan was an $8.4b investment in a rapid transit network that would include a light rail line between the CBD and the airport.

Blenheim resident Des Rawlings said he might just have to get himself an electric car.

They shouldn't be getting money off Marlburians to fund the trams, he said. 

'I suppose there would be plenty of things they could fund [in Marlborough], but I don't imagine they'd be doing it,' he said.

'The roads are pretty rough around here after the earthquakes, flooding, we've had a lot of rain lately.'

Blenheim resident Jo O'Connell said the increasing cost of fuel would have a knock-on effect into all areas.

'I think it will definitely affect us all. 

'It will put up the price of groceries and everybody will notice it across the board, so there's no fighting it, you've just got to accept it, the new normal.' 

But Auckland's infrastructure couldn't cope as it was, and certainly needed improvement, she said.  

'We probably benefit from Auckland in quite a few ways.'

A cycleway from Picton to Kaikōura was a good idea, getting the weed Old Man's Beard cleared up and flora and fauna protected, she said. 

'And maybe an international airport in Blenheim, that would be good.' 

Blenheim resident Sharon Thomas, who lived in Auckland for 20 years, said the price increase wasn't fair on people who couldn't afford it.

'If you need petrol a lot of other things go by the way side so you can afford to pay for petrol.'

Thomas had worked as a nurse and saw the 'social side' of an increase in the price of fuel, such as people not being able to travel to their appointments, she said. 

'We've ended up paying for taxi trips … so they can make their appointments.'

Blenheim resident Ben Goulton said people in Marlborough relied on cars because public transport wasn't an option. 

'Fuel prices going up, bad for us but you know, considerably better for people if it's funding public transport in bigger cities. 

'It's important for infrastructure, and more and more people are not driving around in cities because public transport is becoming better and better, cities are expanding, it becomes more necessary.'

National Party infrastructure and transport spokesman Jami-Lee Ross said he was concerned people in Marlborough were going to be subsidising Auckland's transport system. 

'The cost of petrol will be going up off the back of the Government's desire to invest more in trams in Auckland. As an Auckland MP even I think that's wrong.'