Individual Long Term Plan Budget Lines Make for Sad Reading

Written by Ben Ross - Talking Auckland

Council still needs to convince of City Centre Centric Based LTP

 

Which would be in defiance of the submissions to the Long Term Plan which said less on the City Centre and more out in the rest of Auckland.

With the Budget Committee Agenda paper out and it containing the individual lines (Budget Committee Agenda Up) I had a look through to see what stood out the most. As expected it was both the ‘Auckland Development’ and ‘Transport’ Lines that stood out the most.

 

Auckland Development

Starting on page 85 of the agenda (where the individual budget lines are) we have the Auckland Development budget lines. The total set in the 2015-2025 Long Term Plan (LTP) is $961,101,000 which is no means the biggest with Governance and Support at $1.3 billion and Transport at over $7 billion. However the break down of the Auckland Development budget lines is interesting and also some sad reading as well.

City Centre Development (including Waterfront Auckland):

  • City Centre and Waterfront Auckland (Wynyard Quarter andWesthaven Marina area) – $383,178,000
    • Waterfront Auckland: $145,365,000
    • City Centre: $287,313,000
  • City Centre Targeted Rate Contribution: $20m/year or $200m/10 years

Town Centre Upgrades

  • $79,864,000 over ten years
  • There was a Town Centre Revitialisation line sitting in the previous Regional sub section which had $104,096,000 over ten years put to it. Now I am not sure if that is for individual Town and Metropolitan Centres or the City Centre itself. I shall seek clarification on this.

None the less the City Centre and Waterfront Auckland budgets in the Auckland Development budget line consume some $383,178,000 of the $961,101,000 budget line (so 39%) while the Town Centres with their $79,864,000 consume only 8.3% of the Auckland Development budget. A quick look and I do see five of the ten Metropolitan Centres up for some money but it isn’t really a lot either way. Manukau City Centre gets a paltry $1.5m over two years for “streetscape upgrades.” Somewhat of an insult with Southern Auckland growing fast yet its own City Centre (Manukau) gets virtual platitudes from the Council. Poor Henderson gets NOTHING at all for Metropolitan Centre upgrades and that area is crying for help.

 

So to be critical Auckland Development Chair and Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse, when one says Manukau (and for that matter Henderson) needs some loving one would reasonably expect some serious cash and attention to allow some wide-scale urban renewal to happen to both places. Well $1.5m over 10 years for Manukau (0.15%) and 0% for Henderson is not exactly showing the love.

 

While my mind is on Manukau City Centre and budgets I notice the Manukau Interchange is dependent in the Transport Targeted Rate in order for the interchange to be built next year. Failure on the Governing Body to allow that Targeted Rate would mean the Interchange gets pushed back to 2021 thus a key part of the New South Auckland Bus Network goes missing. Also I see the Mayor is giving false platitudes again after the Long Term Plan Have Your Say Sessions where it was repeatedly brought up to build the Manukau South Link ASAP. That link at a price of $4.5m would allow 20 minute frequent services from Papakura and Pukekohe to Manukau City Centre (14 minute trip from Papakura) rather than 34 minutes on a bus and taking a risk with the unreliable Southern Motorway. The South Link would connect the rapidly growing Southern Auckland to be connected to its City Centre and a City Centre that might be very well holding Pasifika annually. All this I plan to bring back up again on May 14 at the Auckland Development Committee (speaking rights approved of course).

 

Transport

If you are reading the Transport budget line please note that it is the one for the Basic Transport Network Plan if all other alternative revenue gathering methods fail. From page 97 there is the Interim Transport Package which allows the speed up of some projects until other sources are revenue possibly come on-stream. This package would be paid for by the Transport Target Level ($2/week for residents and $3/week for businesses) and only last three years.

The question that comes to mind is what happens after the three years and still no agreement on alternative sources(in which we revert to the Basic Transport Network).

More on that next week.

 

As for balancing up the City Centre and the Town Centres budget lines? It maybe as simple as: increase the Town Centres line to 15%, keep the City Centre one as it is and drop the Governance and Support Line down the required level to support the increase to Town Centres and the numbers even in the budget. 

 

LTP Budget: