Long Term Plan and Transport
Yesterday I looked at the numbers behind council’s Long Term Plan, the first version of which is being worked on by the mayor for release next Thursday.
As well as the all the numbers regarding the potential funding gap, there were a number of fascinating slides about transport.…
55 Comments ACT promises to abolish helmet laws
Cycling seems to be the issue of the week so far. We’ve had Skypath and the Northcote cycle routes followed by National then announced an urban cycling policy which finally seems them agree that urban cycling improvements are needed. Now ACT have joined in on the debate by promising to abolish compulsory helmet laws.…
Auckland property revaluations
The council is required to revalue every property every three years and the valuations are used in the setting of rates the council charges. The last revaluation was in 2011 which means a new one is due this year. The council have announced some early results and they present an interesting picture and show why home owning affordability is such an issue.…
Council Budget Documents
Currently the Auckland Council is going through the process of setting their Long Term Plan, which sets out the councils budget for the next 10 years. This is the timeline from the council’s website.
Long-term Plan timeline August 2014 – Mayor’s LTP proposal
December 2014 – Auckland Council adopts draft LTP
January and February 2015 – Public consultation on the draft LTP
April 2015 – Public hearings June 2015 – Local boards adopt local board agreements and governing body adopts final LTP.…
AMETI Busway gets design funding
Auckland Transport announced yesterday that $21 million had been approved, $11 million of which from the NZTA, to design the first stage in the AMETI busway which will run between Panmure and Pakuranga. A later stage will run from Pakuranga to Botany.…
O’Connell St shared space is wonderful, but
Over the weekend the latest shared space in the city was completed, on O’Connell Street. This joins the growing network of shared spaces with Lorne Street, Elliott St, Darby St, Fort St and the also recently completed Federal Street. I would argue that O’Connell Street is the best one yet.…
National’s Cycling policy
Some great news yesterday with the National Party releasing one part of the transport policy which is actually semi decent. They’ve said they will invest an extra $100 million into building urban cycleways over the next four years.
Prime Minister John Key has today announced $100 million in new funding will be made available over the next four years to accelerate cycleways in urban centres.…
Anyone remember global warming?
As an economist, I get a bit annoyed about inefficient spending (which the Roads of National Significance are), and frustrated at the lack of economic thinking that goes into party policies (all political parties come out badly here – e.g. Labour’s Working For Families seriously messed up marginal tax rates and incentives to work more for mid-income earners).…
Skypath to move a step closer this week
News has been fairly quiet on SkyPath for some time however that appears set to change with news that the resource consent for the project is due to be lodged tomorrow.
Auckland’s SkyPath is a step closer to construction but its chief planner admits the project is battling funding hurdles, complaints from residents and a lack of political support.…
“Concerned residents” want to destroy Auckland’s economy
Edit: Just to be clear, the title of this post is tongue-in-cheek. But the point of the post – that poorly thought out policies can have unintended consequences – is very serious.
The Auckland City Harbour News reports that a new cafe in Grey Lynn has drawn stiff opposition from the locals:
Concerned residents are saying a big “no” to a proposed cafe at The Little Grocer site.…
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