Recently we set up the South Wairarapa Rural and Coastal Advisory Group. It’s genesis was the legally-required formal Representation Review by the previous council. Having a rural ward was examined but the logistics were difficult, given that most of our land area is rural and stretches across the whole district. The new group is one part of the answer.
It will be chaired by Jenny Boyne from Tora Station and, from the many who volunteered, we have tried to ensure that different areas, including our important coastal area, are represented.
The group will look at a range of issues, a key one being input into Council thinking about long-term policy around roads and bridges.
We have nearly 670 km of roads and 140 bridges and culverts. As in many other parts of the country settled in the 1800s, roads were often formed from walking and then horse tracks. They were first used by light farm traffic and gradually rebuilt over the years to accommodate traffic generated by a modern economy. Bridges of course were mostly fords to start with, becoming bridges over time.
Upgrades have tended to be on the same routes and crossing rivers in the same places, rather than the costly and time-consuming work of changing to a more appropriate route – or even building on much stronger foundations.
In our case, we also have roads built on fragile hill country but now used by fully laden logging trucks. One statistic I have seen is that a 63-tonne logging truck has the equivalent impact of 10,000 small cars in terms of road damage. Regular vehicles on our rural roads are certainly not small cars – but nor are they the equivalent of big logging trucks with multiple axles! These roads are owned by the Council. The government contributes just over half the cost of maintenance but it leaves a big bill for ratepayers – even to repair, much less improve. Basically, when there’s a big storm event, both the infrastructure and the budgets are trashed.
As a community we need priorities and policies around road repair – community input will be vital.
In addition, the newly formed Advisory Group will have a close interest in other relevant topics – and there will be many.
Residents of coastal and rural areas are interested in a wide variety of issues – including emergency responses, social cohesion and the environment, all of which might have very different implications for them than they do for town dwellers.
Post script to this column: recently the Martinborough Community Board made some great decisions on grants, helping a wide range of local organisations. Look at the Council Facebook or web page for details.
