Auckland councillors are not comfortable the congestion charging scheme for motorists laid out in a bill will be good for the region.
The council’s transport committee has agreed to make a submission pushing for changes, to a parliamentary select committee.
“The bill itself will create risks for Auckland and the council if implemented in its current form,” council officers told the transport committee.
Its chairperson Andy Baker said the bill needed to change to give Auckland more say.
“There’s very little ability for us … to be able to have sufficient input into what scheme, that it’s really Wellington telling Auckland what is good for us and you know that’s not a thing that we enjoy,” Baker said.
As proposed, the Time of Use Charging legislation introduced in a first reading on March 4 did not give locals enough say over changes, such as any rise in what motorists were charged, or on where the revenue was spent, he said.
Mayor Wayne Brown said it’s about “encouraging a different behaviour”. (Source: Breakfast)
“No public consultation or engagement with the Scheme Board is required to modify the charge,” council officers told the committee this week.
The council would cop the backlash, said Baker.
“We’re the first out of the trenches when it comes to trying to defend that, and when you’ve had nothing to do with it, it’s pretty difficult.
“Again it comes back to Wellington telling Auckland what’s good for it and what the rate’s going to be.”
Then there was the problem of where the revenue went.
The first call on that would be to pay off NZTA’s costs for the camera-spotting technology, but after operating costs were met, the bill gave no guarantee of funding other key things.
“No scheme’s gonna work unless there’s some complementary stuff,” said Baker, adding “public transport is the key to any congestion charging”.
Otherwise, “it’s a difficult sell to the people”.
“The bill does not automatically provide for revenue allocation to essential complementary measures, such as PT (public transport) services or traffic calming required for the smooth running of the scheme, capital costs to implement a scheme, or other local authority costs,” the officers advised.
“Costs incurred by local authorities and costs for essential complementary measures should be captured in the scheme proposal and automatically funded from scheme revenue.”
The bill provides for the council to have a say on the areas that congestion charging be applied to and when.
But while the scheme board would be half-and-half council and NZTA, under the bill the Transport Agency Waka Kotahi had the casting vote – Baker’s committee bridled at that.
The advice also made clear the agency wants some control over how other schemes might be rolled out, such as by setting national standards.
There was also nothing in the bill about curtailing the power of the Transport Minister to have the final say, said Baker, but he did not imagine the minister was “just going to walk all over” locals.
The submission also said the legislation should enable discounts and exemptions beyond just emergency services, “to address significant fairness or cost impacts on vulnerable user groups”.
The submission pushing for changes to key parts of the bill carried a downside, the officers told the committee.
“The main risks associated with this submission is that it indicates that the council is not comfortable with relying on the NZTA and central government policy process, as proposed in the Bill, to ensure positive outcomes for Auckland from a Time of Use Charging scheme.”
Despite the misgivings, the councillors wanted the scheme to come in sooner rather than later.
The current track is for the bill to pass, then another year before the scheme starts, but the submission was that it should be able to start straight away.
That would depend in part on if the technology was ready.
The committee heard it was important that the legislation does not get held up by another bill reforming how Auckland does transport: It transfers transport policy and planning from Auckland Transport to the council, and would set up a new regional transport committee with Crown and council members.
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