Waikato District Mayor Allan Sanson welcomes the announcement by Transport Minister Phil Twyford and the Transport Agency of enhanced funding assistance rates (FAR).
“This increase in subside from central government will assist councils like Waikato District in bringing forward new high priority locally-led road safety improvement activities under the 2018-21 National Land Transport Programme (NLTP),” said Mayor Allan.
The new enhanced FAR will mean up to 50% more funding for locally delivered improvement activity classes provided projects meet certain criteria.
“Today’s announcements from government also sees funding for improving the effectiveness of public transport, walking and cycling improvements and overall improvements to network resilience,” said Mayor Allan.
The Transport Agency has stipulated that access to enhanced FARs is conditional on councils redirecting their cost savings to bring forward additional transport activities during the next three years, and committing to delivering the agreed projects.
“That is all great news from my Council’s perspective,” said Mayor Allan.
“We have a huge roading network in the Waikato District, with over 1830 KM of sealed roads and 604 KM of unsealed roads, so redirecting savings into other transport projects won’t be a problem for us.”
“Add to that our ambitions around Auckland to Hamilton commuter rail, and we’ve got a full plate of opportunity to reinvest these savings,” he said.
More information can be found on the NZTA website here.
