‘Back to the drawing board’ for Cambridge Connections project

Wednesday, 6 November 2024

Proposals for the Cambridge Connections transport project upset a lot of Waipā ratepayers and the council has now apologised (file photo).

After transport proposals produced testy scenes and lost community trust, Waipā District Council has admitted fault and has started a “major reset”.

Cambridge Connections is a 30-year plan to develop the town’s transport services and infrastructure to support growth.

It included an “emerging preferred option” involving a new bridge between the town and Leamington, but that was pulled after backlash.

The whole project was put on hold in August after problems including a drop-in session shutting down 50 minutes early after heated and testy exchanges, and community complaints about not being involved in the plan’s development.

Mayor Susan O’Regan said the council accepted it had made mistakes and lost the trust of the community as a result.

“We need to acknowledge the hurt that was caused, and right those wrongs,” she said.

“I say this from my heart: it’s a place that none of us want to be in again.”

‘We need to acknowledge the hurt that was caused, and right those wrongs,’ Waipā District Council Mayor Susan O'Regan said.

The council has issued a “mea culpa” and pledged to do better at listening to the concerns of the community.

While the fundamental purpose of the project will remain the same, everything else will go “back to the drawing board”, chief executive Steph O’Sullivan said.

This includes assumptions made while the business case was being developed and modelling of traffic patterns and transport demand.

This March meeting about the project was shut down early after things got heated.

“I want to assure people we have heard loud and clear from Cambridge about the importance of this project, and that we have lost the trust and confidence of a great number of people.”

The redraw will take time and resources, O’Sullivan said, but it’s what Cambridge deserves.

Public engagement will be number one priority.

She acknowledged some locals had come to the council with strong views, but also said “our teams come to work every day to do their best for the communities, and nobody intended this to happen”.

The council had previously ordered a review of the Cambridge Connections process, which found “opportunities for improvement” but said the process followed was “largely correct”.

A key finding from the review was a need for more detailed engagement planning alongside steps in the business case “to help with the delivery of key messages and to reduce risk”.