Regional Transport Committee Minutes - 26 April 2018
Minutes of a meeting of the Regional Transport Committee
Held in the Council Chamber, Civic House, 110 Trafalgar Street, Nelson
On Thursday 26 April 2018, commencing at 2.02pm
Present: Councillor G Noonan (Deputy Chairperson Presiding), Her Worship the Mayor R Reese, Councillor M Rutledge and Mr J Harland (NZTA representative)
In Attendance: Councillors M Lawrey and B McGurk, Chief Executive (P Dougherty), Group Manager Infrastructure (A Louverdis) and Governance Adviser (E Stephenson)
Apologies: Councillor Matheson
1. Apologies
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Resolved RTC/2018/007 That the Regional Transport Committee Receives and accepts an apology from Councillor Matheson. |
2. Confirmation of Order of Business
There was no change to the order of items.
There were no updates to the Interests Register, and no interests with items on the agenda were declared.
There was no public forum.
5.1 10 April 2018
Document number M3407, agenda pages 4 - 8 refer.
It was noted that the numbering of the minutes in the agenda was incorrect. However, the numbering on the actual minutes that were confirmed and signed was correct.
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Resolved RTC/2018/008 That the Regional Transport Committee Confirms the minutes of the meeting of the Regional Transport Committee, held on 27 November 2017, as a true and correct record. |
6. Submission on the Draft Government Policy Statement 2018 on Land Transport
Document number R9239, late items agenda pages 2 - 11 refer.
Group Manager Infrastructure, Alec Louverdis answered questions and discussion took place regarding refinements to the submission. The following issues were discussed, noting that the Mayor and Deputy Chair would be delegated authority to finalise and sign the submission:
· the submission needed to be clearer on what recommendation the RTC was making, differentiating with the ‘other suggestions’
· recognition and acknowledgement in the GPS of local government’s place-shaping democratic mandate. Central government’s commitment to partner with local government should be highlighted
· concern regarding areas being disadvantaged as they had no system other than road-based transport for freight. The RTC would like the GPS to acknowledge areas of the country where rail was not available and would not meet the cost benefit test and provide reassurance that they would not be disadvantaged by this
· the need to make clear that the change in accounting policies and the increasing data gathering and monitoring requirements of the NZTA meant so much more opex work, which was the hardest thing for Council to fund. Recognition of the burden on the ratepayer was required and projects being able to receive central government funding on opex. The challenge to make a step change was staff availability to do that thinking. An extra bullet-point was required – “increased financial support for transport strategic planning and thinking”
· The RTC was endorsing the Government’s approach on safety to reduce road death and injury. Safety was a strategic priority and should be given greater weighting. Nelson was constrained regarding safety because of the focus on travel time
· setting standards which would achieve a high level step change. Over time consistency would be achieved in what secondary collectors looked like across the country
· the challenge with the ONRC classification was that it had missed the factor of the environment around the road. The GPS should encourage thinking about the environment; residential areas should be safe, slow zone environments. It was transport driven, rather than land use driven
· Nelson wanted planning close to the city for liveability, with a focus on walking and cycling. A review of classifications based on liveability and safety was required. A suggestion was made to support and expand the classification, specifically recognising the impact of roading on place-making to reinforce that
· lack of rail – Council did not want to miss out on funding, Nelson may not be the only place in country that had its rail taken out and should not be disadvantaged. It should be looked on kindly for other forms of public transport
· in the absence of a rail network, Nelson needed some sort of compensation. As a major exporter and with a significant port that freight needed to get to, it needed a notional railway equivalent – this could be a point at the end of the submission
· local government in New Zealand would like to collaborate with the Ministry – a minor amendment in the submission to show ‘local government NZ and local authorities’
· was the GPS the right forum to ask for changes regarding state highways, speed limits and buses? The Associate Transport Minister had indicated that she wanted to hear about those. It was unlikely whether those points would change the GPS, but could be included as RTC’s other suggestions which related to the GPS
· Model Communities for Ageing Populations should be changed to ‘model communities for active older populations’ in lower case, quotation marks and italic
· making a recommendation to Council provided an opportunity to focus on alignment and for Council to say the submission fitted well with Council’s Transport AMP, with a focus on safety, walking and cycling and a step change in public transport. This was not required but would be helpful.
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Resolved RTC/2018/009 That the Regional Transport Committee Receives the report Submission on the Draft Government Policy Statement 2018 on Land Transport (R9239) and its attachment (A1950026); and Delegates authority to approve any minor changes to the submission on the Draft Government Policy Statement 2018 on Land Transport submission (attached as A1950026 to report R9239), based on feedback from this meeting, to Her Worship the Mayor and Deputy Chair of the Regional Transport Committee; and Approves for signing, by the Her Worship the Mayor and Deputy Chair of the Regional Transport Committee and lodging with the Ministry of Transport, the submission on the Draft Government Policy Statement 2018 on Land Transport (attached as A1950026 to report R9239); and Forwards the approved submission (attached as A1950026 to report R9239) on the Draft Government Policy Statement 2018 on Land Transport to the full Council with the purpose of giving Council the option to either endorse the submission from the Regional Transport Committee or to submit a separate submission directly to the Ministry of Transport.
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Recommendation to Council RTC/2018/010 That the Council Considers whether it wishes to either endorse the submission on the Draft Government Policy Statement 2018 on Land Transport from the Regional Transport Committee or to submit a separate submission directly to the Ministry of Transport; and Delegates authority to sign Council’s endorsement of the Regional Transport Committee’s submission on the Draft Government Policy Statement 2018 on Land Transport submission (attached as A1950026 to report R9239), or Council’s separate submission, based on feedback from this meeting, to Her Worship the Mayor. |
There being no further business the meeting ended at 3.01p.m.
Confirmed as a correct record of proceedings:
Chairperson
Date