Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Damian Light: Howick Local Board Chair on Auckland Transport losing its transport policy and planning powers

Transcript

Damian Light: Howick Local Board Chair on Auckland Transport losing its transport policy and planning powers · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Big changes are coming for Auckland transport. The council set
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: to make so sorry to take back control of policy
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: and planning, and a new Regional Transport Committee will be
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: established to work on a thirty year plan for the city.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Orcand Council will also become a road controlling authority and
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: it will share the decision making with the democratically elected
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: local boards. Hopefully, the idea is that we will be
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: able to have more say over what happens on our roads.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: The bill making the changes still needs to go through
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Parliament's going to be ages. It'll be like a two
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: year transition. Damien Light is the how local board chair.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: He's with me this morning, Damien, good.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Morning, good morning.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Does this mean that we will have fewer cycle ways
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: and raised pedestrian crossings and faster speeds and all the
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: things that the government says that people really want in Auckland.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Well, I hope what we'll see is better decisions being made,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: a more responsive to what local wants. And I think
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of tool about having but what pedestrian
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: conscience on cycle ways? I think people do want them,
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: but they want them in the right place, and I
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: think that's the good thing about better democratic oversight and
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: more powerful boards is you're hopefully more likely to see
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: pedestrian crossings and type of ways in the places where
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: people need them or where they actually want them to right.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Because that's the big thing. I think people think, oh, yeah,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: au Can Transport, we're blowing it up, and that means
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: that we're going to suddenly get everything but that way
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: we want. If you look at how, for example, where
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: you're the chair the local board, you are now going
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: to be devolved specific transport functions over those things parking,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: speed limits, you know, all those kinds of things. Is
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: it possible that we could actually see more of those
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: things because local boards might be more gung ho than
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: All Can Transport was.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a possibility, right. But I think the advantage
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: of democratic oversight is that it gives the public the
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: ability to express their their happiness or or displeasure, I
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: guess with those decisions because we have an election of
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: meets currently every three years, and so the public will
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: have a bit of a more say over the people
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: who are making those decisions. And I think that's been
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  Speaker 2: the great value of All Can Transport. And look, it's
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: been a bit of an experiment in the near fourteen years.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: But I think what I think most people would accept
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: that it hasn't really worked. It was in ended. You know,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: it was meant to be non political. The idea was
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: letting it off and say, oh, it's in dependent, it's
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: not going to get political, and you know it's well
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: be able to get off to get things done. I
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: don't think it has and I think by ironically, by
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: trying to remove politicians from it, it's actually made it
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: more political.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: What happens, well, I suppose it removed the feeling that
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: we had control over it despite its ionic CEO title.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Do you have the local boards have the capacity to
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: actually make decisions about transport projects?
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Now, yeah, well we do a little bit. We have
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: a little bit to say over some projects that happened
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: in the area and actually compid all contransport. The last
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: couple of years, probably the last twelve months, they've been
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: working really hard and listen to local boards better and
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: as you respond to what our desires and what we
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: said s important, which is great, so that their organization
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: is capable of doing it. And I think local boards
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: are shown that they can do it as well. Hope
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: we need some more advice and support though, So it's
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: one of one of those things, right, It's not it
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: won't happen overnight, but there's a bit of a bit
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: of a change it's going to need to happen.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and some is definitely going to be a bit
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: more on their gender, I'd say, Damien light how local
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: boards share with us This morning
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: to news Talks it'd be from five am weekdays, or
• 3:33
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