Winter maintenance, including gritting will continue business as usual, Queenstown Lakes District Mayor Vanessa van Uden said today.

Council sought feedback from the community through the draft Annual Plan on a number of issues including gritting and oiling.

‘Faced with a shortfall in the New Zealand Transport Agency’s funding for winter maintenance, we might have assumed the community wanted to fund gritting from rates, but instead we put it out there, we said what do you think?,” Mayor van Uden said.

The Council was delighted with the response. “It was fantastic, we got 280 people saying there’s no way Council should reduce gritting, so we’ve sent the submissions to NZTA to help make the case.”

And it seemed to have an impact. “I’m pleased to report that there is now acknowledgement by NZTA that QLDC has been underfunded in its winter maintenance activities,” Mayor van Uden said. 

There had also been acknowledgement that savings in NZTA expenditure made by QLDC in its roading rebuilding and resealing projects provided an opportunity for NZTA funding for winter maintenance to be increased. 

“So, the Annual Plan now proposes winter maintenance should be business as usual,” Mayor van Uden said.

A second roading issue consulted on through the Annual Plan process also drew significant community feedback.

“Every year we are applying around 225,000 litres of oil to our unsealed roads for cutting down on dust, that’s a big impact on the environment, although we also recognise dust can be a safety issue,” Mayor van Uden said.

Through the submission process 262 people wanted oiling stopped.

“We have listened and the programme will be discontinued but we know we need to provide other alternatives in the short term around this,” Mayor van Uden said.

Number one, the Council is escalating its programme for treating unsealed roads with a semi- permanent seal (“Ottaseal” - which mitigates the dust issue on roads for several years), and has a target of having this done on all the roads that were previously oiled within three years, she said..

Second, people could pay to have sections of unsealed roads oiled in the meantime, through roading contractor Downers. “Finally we will be reviewing the situation in terms of safety. Funding will be available to apply dust suppression under the Council’s minor improvements programme if it is required for public safety,’ she said.

The Council will be asked to adopt the Annual Plan on 28 June 2011.

ENDS

For further information please contact Vanessa van Uden 03 441 0499.

By: Andrea Bunting