TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

BOARD OF INQUIRY

MacKays to Peka Peka Expressway Proposal

HEARING at on 8 JANUARY 2013

BOARD OF INQUIRY:

Sir John Hansen (Chairperson) Environment Commissioner David Bunting (Board Member) Ms Glenice Paine (Board Member) Mr Mark Apeldoorn (Board Member)

Page 1732

[9.32 am]

5 CHAIRPERSON: Be seated please. Now, Dr Knight and Ms Sefton.

DR KNIGHT: Mainly me speaking, yes.

CHAIRPERSON: Right. So you wish to speak to your representation, okay, 10 go ahead and you have a presentation as well.

DR KNIGHT: I do indeed, yes.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. 15 BIRD SONG PLAYED

DR KNIGHT: That was the sound of a morning chorus at Ngā Manu Nature Reserve. Thank you for this opportunity to address the Board of 20 Inquiry. We also appreciate you taking the time to visit Ngā Manu Nature Reserve. I am Catherine Knight, a Trustee of Ngā Manu Trust and representing the Trust today. I am accompanied by Tony Ward, Trust Chair, Bruce Benseman, manager of our reserve and also a Trustee and Erica Sefton, our planning advisor. We are all happy to 25 answer your questions.

Today I would like to present to you a brief overview of the history of Ngā Manu and the important role it plays both to the local community and nationally in preserving and promoting our national heritage before 30 briefly outlining four of the key points raised in our submission. The presentation is made up of 17 slides and will take about 15 to 20 minutes.

Ngā Manu began as an idea in the mind of Peter McKenzie when he 35 was only 20 years old, while working as a zoo keeper at Zoo and inspired by his experiences working with wildlife in Australia, he conceived of the idea of establishing a zoo facility for indigenous rather than exotic species unprecedented at the time.

40 [9.35 am]

Over time this idea evolved and Peter became aware not only of preserving indigenous fauna but indigenous flora. In 1974 he established Ngā Manu Trust with the objectives of providing a suitable 45 habitat for indigenous flora and fauna and opportunities to educate and

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raise awareness of the value of ’s natural heritage among the public and, in particular, children.

The first task of the Trust was to find a site that included a suitable 5 waterbody, a significant remnant of native vegetation and one which was easily accessible from Wellington and other regional communities. It also had to be affordable as the Trust’s funds were only limited. The Trust found that there were very few sites that met its criteria and the search continued without success for a few years. 10 Finally, in 1977, the Trustees found a small valley encompassing a wetland surrounded with bush which they believed to be a perfect site for a reserve. It was only when the site was visited by renowned botanist John Dawson that Peter realised the outstanding value of the 15 Ngā Manu forest remnant as an extremely rare example of lowland wetland forest now largely banished from the wider region.

The Trust secured a lease for 13 years and 11 months the maximum permissible under the law and then the real work began to transform 20 part of a working sheep farm into a wildlife sanctuary. With only the help of a small number of volunteers Peter used a bulldozer to create additional wetlands, undertook fencing, pest control and planting. Through perpetual maintenance, vigilance and patience Ngā Manu has transformed from what was barren, windswept farmland to a lush 25 sanctuary for a myriad species of lowland flora and indigenous fauna.

Today Ngā Manu offers a unique opportunity for locals and overseas visitors to experience first hand a rare lowland forest environment including birds and other fauna rarely encountered in the wild today. 30 The reserve hosts 18 to 20 thousand visitors a year, a third of which are school or community groups, a further third local or national visitors and the remaining third overseas visitors. As such it makes an invaluable contribution to both the local economy and the educational sector. 35 Ngā Manu contains the largest single remaining remnant of original coastal lowland swamp forest on the Kapiti Coast and plays a vital role in the local and regional network of conservation and wildlife sites such as Kapiti Island, River, Tararua Ranges, 40 Hemi Matenga, Council reserves and other private bush protected by QEII covenants.

Approximately 700 different species of native plants can be seen at Ngā Manu including many on the threatened species list. These range 45 from native grasses and ferns through to a 400 year old kahikatea. Over 56 different bird species come and go through the wetlands, bush

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and surroundings. Species that can be viewed at the reserve include kiwi, tuatara, gecko, skinks, wetas, morepork or ruru, tui, wood pigeon, kereru, fantail, (INDISTINCT 4.08) blue duck or whio, kakariki, paradise duck and brown teal. 5 There are daily feedings of long and short finned eels in a pond near the information centre which provide visitors with a rare opportunity to get up close to these normally elusive creatures while listening to an educational talk. 10 For children in particular Ngā Manu provides an outstanding learning and experiential opportunity. From its inception the reserve has priorities its accessibility, availability and attention to school groups hosting hundreds of school groups over its 25 years to date. So 15 important is this part of its function the Trust recently established a purpose built multimedia education centre that can accommodate up to 100 students.

[9.40 am] 20 Nga Manu is also actively involved in important species recovery and research programmes such as the Brothers Island Tuatara Species Recovery Project. The Trust supports and provides an invaluable field site for research on indigenous ecosystems and species including by 25 Victoria and Massey Universities and the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Research projects the Trust has supported and/or facilitated include; Kereru Responses to Urbanisation, Behaviour of Kea in Enclosures, 30 Natural Fish Path (ph 0.46) Designs, Re-establishing Native Mistletoe. The Habitat Requirements of Brown Mudfish, Monitoring of Migratory Fish and Testing Tui Transmitters. The Reserve also welcomes documentary filmmakers, mostly recently hosting National Geographic which filmed part of a documentary on eels at Nga Manu. 35 The Trust’s role is to ensure that this rare remnant of lowland coastal swamp forest and the adjacent waterways are protected for the future. This leads into our outstanding concerns regarding the MacKays to Peka Peka expressway proposal. Our concerns are outlined in our 40 written submission but we would briefly like to reiterate what we consider the four key issues.

Our first concern relates to potential effects of the proposal on local waterways, including Kakariki Stream, which provides a vital 45 mountains to sea ecological corridor.

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The second concern we would like to reiterate here is with respect to the proposed realignment of Kakariki Stream. Sorry, I missed something there.

5 NZTA have proposed the creation of an artificial wetland to capture stormwater run off from the expressway. The Trust endorses the creation of a wetland to mitigate the effects of stormwater runoff and sees it has having the potential to enhance the ecological linkages between the various wetlands in the area, however in order to serve its 10 purpose in an enduring way it will have to be effectively designed, maintained and monitored. In respect to this issue the Trust would like to add some clarification to the points raised in our written submission.

As outlined on page 3 of our submission the Trust seeks robust 15 monitoring standards to ensure the on-going health of local waterways. In addition the Trust requests that it has input into the development of the management plan for the proposed wetland area adjacent to Kakariki Stream and that this arrangement be formalised as a condition of consent. 20 The second concern we would like to reiterate here is with respect to the proposed realignment of Kakariki Stream. The proposal involves the construction of two new bridges crossing the stream within 500 metres of the reserve. The realignment of the stream for these bridges 25 is likely to put pressure on stream banks, both upstream and downstream. Being comprised largely of sand and peat these banks are highly susceptible to erosion. This realignment, without suitable mitigation measures, has the potential to cause extensive erosion, particularly in the case of heavy rain. 30 Such erosion could have serious consequences with the potential to cut off access into the reserve and the Mackenzie property at pinch points, and for its potential to damage or at worst severe the main sewerage connection from Waikanae East to Waikanae West wish runs adjacent 35 to the stream. The risk of lost access could be mitigated through NZTA implementation of alternative access linking into the East/West Link Road as per KCDC Plan Change 69 and 80.

The third concern that the Trust would like to reiterate relates to access. 40 It is essential that safe and adequate access is provided to Nga Manu.

Erica is just pointing to where Nga Manu is, which is the - - -

CHAIRPERSON: I am sorry, that does not work very well. 45 DR KNIGHT: It is not very good, is it?

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CHAIRPERSON: Would you like to walk over and point to it? It might be easier for - - -

5 DR KNIGHT: It is where the yellow oblong is.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes, thank you.

DR KNIGHT: Thank you, Ruth. 10 [9.45 am]

CHAIRPERSON: We are familiar because we have visited (INDISTINCT 5.06). 15 DR KNIGHT: That is good.

CHAIRPERSON: For some reason the laser does not work quite the way we had hoped. 20 DR KNIGHT: No, it is not for that, is it?

This would most effectively be provided by the planned East/West Linkages already formalised through KCDC Plan Changes 69 and 80. 25 This has been and continues to be the long term access option that Nga Manu, in conjunction with Council, has been working towards. An access option that only utilises the existing access road is an interim solution and not acceptable to Nga Manu.

30 We understand that the NZTA has entered into an agreement with the council regarding funding of what is the council’s preferred option for roading access. We support the council’s preferred option set out in this agreement.

35 The fourth concern that the Trust would like to speak to relates to noise mitigations. The reserve is a very peaceful environment suitable for enjoying and appreciating the natural values of Nga Manu, something that would have been evident on the Board’s recent visit to the reserve.

40 The persistent background noise of vehicles is not in any way compatible with the experience of visiting a conservation area or undertaking education or research. We ask that you try to imagine the birdsong you heard at the beginning of our presentation but overload with the constant hum of heavy traffic. 45

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We believe that the special nature of Nga Manu is such that it deserves consideration as noise sensitive environment therefore we respectfully request that Nga Manu receives the same consideration as a PPF (Protected Premise and Facilities). We understand that the Council and 5 NZTA have entered into an agreement under which NZTA has agreed to install noise reducing seal in the vicinity of Ngarara Road, which is the Plan Change 80 area, once residential development is underway. However this does not preclude NZTA providing the sealant in advance of this, which is likely to be several years in the future. We therefore 10 request that noise reducing seal is included as part of the initial expressway construction.

Thank you once again for this opportunity to present our concerns to you. We welcome any questions and of course if you are every in need 15 of peace and quiet or some contact with real nature we invite you to visit Nga Manu again.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Dr Knight.

20 COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Can I ask a couple of questions?

DR KNIGHT: Certainly.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Just going through the things that you are 25 looking for, firstly there is the monitoring standards and so on with respect to the wetland. Has that been carried forward, do you know, in a condition of consent? Have you had discussions with the agency to find out whether that is happening or not?

30 DR KNIGHT: We have not. There has been something written up by the Council we understand. Is that right, Bruce?

MR BENSEMAN: Yes, we have had discussions with both parties but there has been nothing formalised and what we require is to see something 35 formalised so that we know the longevity if these wetlands are going to be secure and maintained.

CHAIRPERSON: Well there has been – just to interrupt, it has been a very on-going process around conditions which I think the latest iteration 40 that came up just before Christmas is on the website by now and there is a further set or refinement of that due next week.

What I was going to suggest – and we will come back to the questioning - but it may be useful if you speak to the friend of the 45 submitter who is sitting at the back today to put you in touch with Mr Kyle, who is the planning advisor to the Board, so that you can find out

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the latest state of play and have any further input that you think is appropriate in relation to that because it could well be that some of these concerns that you expressed have already been met. Sorry to interrupt, but - - - 5 COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Oh, well I was just going to go through the other ones.

The second one, concerning this Link Road, you are more or less 10 indicating that action is in hand to address that concern? NZTA has entered into an agreement with the Council regarding funding et cetera?

DR KNIGHT: Yes, I mean I am not – not being experienced in these sorts of matters I do not know how enforceable that is. I mean, if that is totally 15 enforceable and that agreement will remain completely concrete and set in stone then I am assuming probably our problems are in part resolved but I guess we have concerns around that, whether, you know, its legal standing and so on, and we were not involved in that. We do agree with it but, yes, having no expertise in that area we really just do need 20 to keep on reiterating that that’s a major concern for the future viability of the reserve.

[9.50 am]

25 COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Well, it does seem to be being responded to.

DR KNIGHT: Good, we’re pleased.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: From what you said anyway, yes. And the 30 OGPA, you know the – in the noise – perhaps you haven’t had a chance to read, I think it is Technical Report 15, which is the noise report that came in with the application, which dealt with noise right through the whole project. I just can’t recall having read that, what the effect of that low noise seal would be for you people, for your reserve, 35 compared without it.

DR KNIGHT: The assessment didn’t include an assessment of the impact of the road noise on Ngā Manu full stop.

40 COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Okay. So you don’t know, if it was put in, what the difference would be between a more conventional servicing and that?

DR KNIGHT: No, and I think we raised that in our original submission that, 45 yes, there was adequate information or us to make that kind of (INDISTINCT 1.31).

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COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Okay, well, thank you for that. Okay, that is all I had, thank you, sir.

5 MR APELDOORN: Nothing further, thank you, sir.

CHAIRPERSON: So really could we summarise your position is that your four concerns, to varying degrees, appear to be having addressed in the process of conditions, but your concern is at the moment, today, you 10 don’t have any certainty around them.

DR KNIGHT: Absolutely no certainty and particularly around the seal issue, even if it were to be implemented in the future we have no idea when that future date might be. It could be many years in the future. 15 CHAIRPERSON: And you still don’t have knowledge of the difference of effect from your answer to give me something.

DR KNIGHT: No, there wasn’t even a baseline assessment, it basically just 20 sort of dismissed Ngā Manu as not meeting the criteria for being a sensitive receiving environment and that was that, which we would argue, we disagree most definitely.

CHAIRPERSON: We understand that. 25 MS McKENZIE: The point of that noise reducing seal is that it reduces the noise so if we’re looking at the Ngā Manu environment.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes, but the question was - - - 30 MS McKENZIE: How much.

CHAIRPERSON: - - - how much does it reduce it.

35 DR KNIGHT: By how much, yes. Yes, I understand.

CHAIRPERSON: And you don’t know the answer to that at the moment, all right.

40 DR KNIGHT: No.

CHAIRPERSON: Well, again, that may be something to take up with the Friend of the Submitter and have a discussion with Mr Kyle, who may be able to give you more information around that. All right, well, thank 45 you very much for your submission.

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DR KNIGHT: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: And thank you for hosting us on the visit on the day in question. Ms McKenzie? 5 MS McKENZIE: Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. My name is Ruth McKenzie, I live at 281 Ngarara Road and am an immediate neighbour of the Ngā Manu Nature Reserve. My late husband, Peter, was the founder of the Ngā Manu Trust and our 10 family continues to have a very close and ongoing relationship with both the Trust and the reserve. I have asked to speak after the Ngā Manu representatives today as many of the issues that they have raised are of concern to me also.

15 Dr Knight has just given you an overview of the history and development of Ngā Manu. Ngā Manu does not necessarily have a high public profile beyond the largely, I think, as a reflection of my husband’s personality, he was a very modest man. So I hope that Dr Knight’s presentation has helped you to understand the 20 importance of the work that it does and the support that it receives from the many communities that it interacts with. In the areas of conservation, education and research Ngā Manu is regarded as punching well above its weight.

25 I would like to record that I support the submission from Ngā Manu in its entirety.

Speaking to my submission, as the neighbour and property owner, I would like to group the first three items that are outlined in my written 30 submission together, they’re all to do with water and I’ll just make the following comments.

From your site visit you may have got the impression that the pond area to the west of the Ngā Manu car park and adjacent to the current 35 driveway is part of the reserve. It is in fact on my property and is an area, along with the Kakariki Stream, that my children played in as youngsters. I’m concerned that if it is not properly protected my grandchildren will not have the same opportunities for play in the future. 40 I know that you have had expert advice on the effects of the expressway on the Kakariki Stream and I’m no expert but, from living next to it for 20 years and having been associated with it for more than 35 years, I’m not convinced that the conclusions presented to you are 45 sound.

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[9.55 am]

In particular the section of the Kakariki Stream, slightly to the west of where my current driveway meets the Ngā Manu access road, is prone 5 to flooding and erosion. Several years ago, when Jonathan Smith of Maypole Environmental Ltd, KCDC, Ngā Manu and we, Peter and I, were looking at the best options for the whole area, much time and effort was put in by many experts and it was decided that the best way to protect the vulnerable section of the Kakariki Stream was to keep 10 any future bridging well clear of that part of the stream. I believe much more than you propose will need to be done to maintain the current status of the Kakariki Stream and prevent the adverse ecological flooding and erosion effects which may result from the construction of the expressway. 15 Moving onto my section in my submission about access. You will have seen the Kapiti Council decision on plan changes 80 and 69 and be aware that they both include an east-west linkage road. I know that your area of concern is limited to the expressway in the first instance 20 but I think that the relatively minor additional cost to include this linkage, with the local support that is available, is warranted in this case. Indeed, in the long term, it could be both cost effective for you and beneficial in many ways to the wider community. Satisfactory independent access to my property is provided as part of these plans. 25 I was very upset after meeting with Andrew Noble of Opus International Consultants in October. The meeting was to discuss the land acquisition requirements for the expressway. He said that, as part of your proposal, access would only be provided to the boundary of my 30 property. At the moment I can drive to my front door. I expect to be able to do no less at no cost to me as a result of this expressway construction.

The other area that my submission addressed was noise. I have 35 actually nothing further to add to what is in my written submission on the impact of noise. Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Mrs McKenzie, you refer to “your proposal”, you do understand it’s not our proposal, you were referring to NZTA there? 40 MS McKENZIE: I am.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.

45 MS McKENZIE: But I am speaking to you and oh, yes.

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CHAIRPERSON: Well, it’s not our proposal, we have to determine whether such proposal receives a go ahead or not.

MS McKENZIE: Yes. 5 CHAIRPERSON: It’s not our proposal.

MS McKENZIE: Okay.

10 CHAIRPERSON: We are quite independent of NZTA.

MS McKENZIE: Okay.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. And the other comment I would make, which 15 doesn’t seem to be fully understood despite a number of efforts to explain it, that our jurisdiction in a number of areas is actually quite limited as to what we can actually do.

MS McKENZIE: And I’m sure you understand that that gives very little solace 20 to those of us who get the consequences of these decisions.

CHAIRPERSON: We do.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Just following on, I think you can refer to the 25 land acquisition, for instance, which we - - -

CHAIRPERSON: Yes.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: This is not part of - - - 30 CHAIRPERSON: Land acquisition is a matter for the Public Works Act, it doesn’t form part of this application.

MS McKENZIE: But you understand from where I’m sitting. 35 CHAIRPERSON: Oh, absolutely.

MS McKENZIE: The same thing and it’s just coming at me.

40 CHAIRPERSON: And I also understand that this is your only chance to get up and publicly say that and that’s why we would not stop anyone from saying it.

MS McKENZIE: Thank you. 45

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CHAIRPERSON: I just want it understood because it doesn’t seem to be clearly understood what our actual function and role is sometimes, understandably. Anything else?

5 MR HASSAN: Your Honour, Mr Nicholson has just noted that he would be happy to talk to Ms McKenzie during a break on matters that are beyond jurisdiction of the Board, sir.

CHAIRPERSON: Don’t leave, Mrs McKenzie, make sure you talk to 10 Mr Nicholson before you go. You may go home a much happier lady.

MS McKENZIE: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: All right, well, thank you very, very much for your 15 submissions. Now, I hope I get the pronunciation right, we come to Mr Pallo.

[10.00 am]

20 Now, Mr Pallo, we received your submission and you wish to speak to it so you just go right ahead.

MR PALLO: Thank you, Mr Chairman.

25 CHAIRPERSON: We will just move the microphone back so we make sure we get it on record.

MR PALLO: Well thank you for the opportunity to make a presentation and address you this morning. First by way of introduction while my given 30 name is Gerhard Pallo, I am known as Gary Pallo. I am making this submission as an individual person and I am not connected with any group or any organisation.

I am a retired consulting engineer having spent around 30 years as a 35 partner in a multidisciplinary practice. My background training was in electrical engineering and this submission is not made in any professional capacity, nor in any way associated with my previous employment.

40 However in this employment I was deeply involved in project planning at all levels and have used this experience outside my workplace in submissions made on Wellington Regional Planning matters and I have attached some extracts in relation to that and with terms on award committee in the Lower Hutt City Council, the second being as award 45 committee chairperson.

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My primary residence is in Lower Hutt but I also own property in Kapiti. I or our family have owned property in Kapiti Coast for around 70 odd years, during which time we have been frequent users of the highway between Wellington and the Kapiti Area. 5 Now in relation to the support for the proposal you will be aware from my submission that I support the proposal in full and the reasons for my support were set out in the submission and I would now like to amplify that summary. 10 The first issue I would like to raise which I think is the most significant factor is that the proposed expressway is to be part of a national network. The proposed expressway will be part of the national roads network and forming an essential element in the State Highway One 15 route linking Manawatu through to Wellington.

While this is only one element it is part of the roads of national significance for the region and when completed will provide the essential infrastructure to enable the orderly development of the local 20 communities and businesses without disruption to the transport, transportation of goods and services through the region.

This will be a significant improvement on the situation currently existing which has in my view arisen due to funding arrangements 25 available to major roading projects coupled with the lack of an integrated overall long term plan for the future. In this regard I wish to refer to the two submissions I referred to earlier, they were made to the Wellington Land Transport Committee in 2005 and 2007.

30 I appreciate that these submissions related mainly to matters south of MacKays crossing however it highlights the shortcomings and as such they are only peripheral to the present hearing and I appreciate that. However, it does highlight the shortcomings arising from pigeon hole planning of infrastructure projects where an overall long term visionary 35 plan is absent. It often merely shifts traffic bottle necks from one point to another further down the road.

From an historical perspective the Johnsonville to motorway is an example of a plan with a vision for the future which has served the 40 region for many decades. At the time of its completion it provided a most welcome relief to the tedious stop start driving from Tawa through Glenside to Johnsonville, not unlike that now experienced by motorists approaching Otaki from the north on a weekend.

45 It is essential to get the planning for the appropriate integration of the roads of national significance for this region completed as a unit and

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implemented at the earliest date. I will now refer to a comment I made about benefits to local population. Many of the anticipated benefits for the local population have been well enunciated in the New Zealand Transport Agency MacKays to Peka Peka paper on assessment of 5 environmental effects in the non technical summary section 1.2 background to the proposal.

[10.05 am]

10 In my view I believe however there are three aspects which have not been given due prominence for the benefits arising from the completion of this proposal. The first I believe is the aspect of peace of mind for residents in the area of wanting certainty about the location of major traffic routes. The Kapiti area houses many elderly residents and the 15 last thing they want to be concerned about is whether or not their residence will be disrupted due to unclearly defined proposed major traffic routes.

Uncertainly over the past 60 years for the MacKays to Peka Peka route 20 can now be remedied with the implementation of this proposal. I will comment later on the matter regarding those who are directly affected by the current proposal.

The second point relates to the removal of the long distance traffic from 25 the Waikanae and centres. The present State Highway One runs adjacent to the railway, especially near the railway stations at both centres. With the double tracking and electrification of the commuter service through to Waikanae, both the pedestrian and car parking needs at each of these stations creates a conflict with big time 30 traffic on State Highway One. Again, implementation of the current proposal with the removal of long distance traffic will enable much of this conflict to be addressed in an orderly and cost effective manner.

The third matter relates to economic activity. It is well understood that 35 having an effective and integrated infrastructure system provides the environment to promote economic activity. As an example of this locally is the establishment of the Paraparaumu Airport, redevelopment at the Paraparaumu Airport. This has prompted the establishment of a number of business activities close by with more to follow. Each 40 business enterprise generates jobs, not only for its construction, but also the ongoing operation.

With the recognised multiplier of one new job creating seven downstream jobs in the community, the benefits to the region become 45 significant. Increased jobs mean more activity with added value to the region with improved values also to residential properties. This long

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term real benefit to the people of Kapiti is one of the more intangible aspects arising from the effects of proceeding with this proposal.

There is also impact on future planning. The Kapiti region is 5 continuing to grow, both due to its desirable environment and the availability of space for residential development. As this development continues the cost of land is escalating and the available of unoccupied land is diminishing. With the present planned proposal does not proceed and land is not clearly designated now for highway use, the 10 ability and the future to achieve an appropriate State Highway One link through the region at a realistic cost will be significantly impaired.

Also the points I made earlier about the impact on the peace of mind of residents will be rekindled. I would just like to make some additional 15 comments and I appreciate these are probably outside the terms of reference of the hearing, however I think they are appropriate.

I wish to state that I am not directly affected by the proposal other than to the extent that the process of construction will affect many people in 20 the natural course of the activities within the region. This does not mean I do not have an empathy for those who are directly affected. While compensation for disruption to their lives will probably never fully replace the previous amenity. I believe that such compensation should recognise that the long period of indecision in clearly defining 25 this expressway route has contributed to some of the issues now being faced, all possible steps be taken to remedy this position.

To summarise my submission, again I support the proposal for the following reasons. 30 [10.10 am]

First, it is an essential part of the national roading network. Second, it will benefit the people in the region by first removing long distance 35 traffic from key centre areas, improve the peace of mind by removing planning uncertainty, and improved infrastructure will promote economic jobs and growth to the region, and it will also enable the development of the communities to proceed on a more certain and developed basis. 40 Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much, Mr Pallo. Thank you very much.

45 Now, Mr Marshall on behalf of the Porirua City Council.

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MR MARSHALL: Good morning. I’ve got some hard copies.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.

5 MR MARSHALL: I think it will take about 10-15 minutes to read through this.

CHAIRPERSON: Just when you’re ready, just go ahead, thank you.

10 MR MARSHALL: Okay. So my full name is Geoffrey James Marshall, and my position is Manager of Roading in the Asset Management Operations Department at Porirua City Council, and this representation is made on behalf of Porirua City Council.

15 I am familiar with the proposal to which these proceedings relate, and on behalf of the Council, I have been involved for the past 15 years in liaison with officers of the Greater Wellington regional Council and adjoining District and City Council’s and the State Highway Authority on matters concerned with the Wellington . 20 I am providing this statement under the Chief Executive of Porirua City Council’s delegated authority to make submissions on behalf of the Council, and this statement is given for Porirua City Council in support of its submission dated 10 August 2012. 25 The scope of my statement will address the following. Firstly, the Council’s support for the proposal and the benefits for the proposal for Porirua City, and then some small comments on matters raised by submitters. So firstly PCC’s, or Porirua City Council’s support for the 30 proposal.

Porirua City Council strongly supports the need for a substantial improvement of the State Highway One route through Kapiti Coast District as part of the regionally agreed plans for safe and efficient 35 movement of people and goods through and to the north of its own district. It therefore strongly supports the proposal.

Over the past 20 years Porirua City Council has actively supported improvements to State Highway One through Porirua City and 40 adjoining local authority areas, consistent with regional plans. It supported the application by Transit New Zealand for notices of requirement for the Transmission Gully Project in May 1997 and supported a high priority for construction in regional and national land transport programmes. 45

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In its 1996/97 district land transport programme it stated Council is of the view that the Transmission Gully proposal should proceed as soon as possible. The Transmission Gully proposal will vastly improve the national access to the region as a whole, the Hutt Valley, the Capital 5 City, and will provide local benefits for bypassed communities. The Council joined with NZTA as an applicant for the necessary designations and resource management consents and was pleased that these were granted following a Board of Inquiry process earlier this year. 10 Porirua City Council became a partner with the NZTA in the Transmission Gully project because of its vital interest in the project to support the further development of its district and the quality of its environment while also supporting regional and national objectives. 15 The construction of the new route for State Highway One Transmission Gully is, however, only part of the western corridor plan and the Council has welcomed the recognition of this by NZTA and the proposals to make significant improvements to other sections of the 20 corridor in Wellington City and Kapiti Coast District as part of the roads national significance.

The Council also strongly supports the necessary improvements to passenger rail services in the corridor and many of these are already 25 underway.

[10.15 am]

The benefits of the proposal for Porirua City and for its residents. The 30 MacKays to Peka Peka proposal will produce further future economic benefits to Porirua City. These can be categorised as national and regional benefits which will accrue to Porirua, as well as local benefits which will be specific to Porirua residents.

35 The national benefits. The improved connection into and through the Wellington region resulting from the proposal, in conjunction with other planned improvements, such as Transmission Gully motorway, will enable Wellington City to contribute more fully to the national economy and social fabric. 40 Wellington is a nationally significant population at the centre of New Zealand, high quality links through it and to it are important to support and facilitate development of the social, cultural and economic development of New Zealand as a nation. 45

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Porirua City supports Wellington City economically with housing for workers in Wellington City and through shared cultural and infrastructural facilities. Economic benefits to Wellington City flow back to Porirua City. 5 Regional benefits. The proposal and future likely improvements to State Highway 58 will provide improved connections between centres of population, commercial and industrial activity in the Hutt Valley and those in Kapiti District and Porirua City. 10 This will effectively bring the centres closer together by reducing travel times and will increase the viability of the region for new and existing commercial and social activities. Porirua will benefit economically from this, a benefit known as agglomeration. 15 Local benefits, so benefits to Porirua City. A further benefit will be the greater reliability of resilience of the State Highway network that will result from the proposal. Travel times on the existing State Highway One route through Kapiti Coast District are unpredictable for drivers 20 due to its low standard and traffic congestion. In part, this is due to the use of one route, State Highway One, for both district trips and for local trips between the districts communities.

Like people have been telling me, their experiences at Christmas were 25 something like two hours from Porirua to Waikanae at the beginning of the Christmas holidays, which reinforces what we’ve just said there about unpredictability of travel time.

The creation of a new high quality route from MacKays to Peka Peka 30 will provide the opportunity for better separation of these traffic flows on routes with a speed environment more appropriate to their needs. The resulting improvements in traffic flow will benefit the Porirua economy.

35 The 2006 Census showed that 882 Kapiti residents, or 4.4% of the working population work in Porirua, and I would expect that most of these travel by road to work. They and their employers will benefit from the proposal.

40 A further direct benefit to Porirua residents will be the potential of improved access to the Kapiti Coast/Paraparaumu Airport. This airport is closer than Wellington Airport for many Porirua residents and should the frequency of air services increase in future, this may become their airport of choice. Faster, more reliable journey times as a result of the 45 proposal will benefit these travellers.

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I am, however, aware that Mr Kelly, on behalf of Kapiti Coast Airport Holdings Limited, and Mr Wignall, on behalf of the Kapiti Coast District Council, have submitted on their concerns that there could be additional congestion on the main route to the airport, that’s Kapiti 5 Road, as a result of this proposal. The Porirua City Council supports their concerns and their suggestions for changes to address these problems, and I am sure they can be addressed.

Comment on other submissions. The Council has noted that a 10 substantial number of submitters are concerned about the possible impacts on their residential environment as a result of the proposal. Through my work for the Porirua Council I am well aware of the impacts that State Highway One can have on communities through which it passes. 15 [10.20 am]

In Porirua City, due to the poor standard of the existing State Highway One route, it creates a barrier within communities, particularly for 20 Mana and Pukerua Bay. Access to and from frontages and side roads is difficult and high risk, and noise levels are not acceptable in many locations. This was a major reason for Council’s support for Transmission Gully, where any impacts could be effectively mitigated or avoided. 25 It is to be expected that in the MacKays to Peka Peka Proposal the opportunity should similarly be available to design the new road and its environs to manage any impacts to appropriate levels.

30 The detailed design process should be assisted by the route selected having largely followed previous designations and substantial land purchases by the Crown and Council for an arterial road in the open space between the beach settlements and the newly developed areas adjacent to the existing State Highway 1. 35 In finalising the detailed designs it will be important for New Zealand Transport Agency to work closely with the Kapiti Coast District Council and the local communities.

40 And in conclusion, Porirua City Council supports the proposal because of the benefits to Porirua city and to the Wellington region.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr Marshall.

45 MR MARSHALL: Thank you.

Kapiti Coast 08.01.13 Page 1751

CHAIRPERSON: Now, Mr Bagshaw? Could you just check if he is outside please? Dr Page? Just come forward, Dr Page. Now, you wish to speak to your submission?

5 DR PAGE: Yes, sir, I do.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.

DR PAGE: I also have a few slides on a Powerpoint presentation. 10 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Well, we will put them up on this one and we have them right here in front of us. Thank you.

DISCUSSION REGARDING POWERPOINT 15 CHAIRPERSON: Right.

DR PAGE: So I will begin with just some introductory remarks and just to give you a bit of background to my position. So thank you for the 20 opportunity to speak to my written submission.

With the exception of a five year period where I resided in the Australian Capital Territory I have lived in Greater Wellington for 42 years. Although I have not resided in Kapiti I have frequently and 25 extensively travel throughout the lower for recreational purposes and for visiting relatives.

I am very familiar with its roading network and associated problems. Indeed, many of the problems associate with congested highways were 30 known to me even as a small child when visiting the coast on family picnics in the 1970s.

Conversely, solution to the problems posed by the inadequate infrastructure were also known at the time. Indeed, they were known 35 since the 1950s, and I just refer you to the text in Figure 1 there – “The sand hills motorway designation was often spoken of but like the numerous heat mirages that appear above Kapiti Beach sands on a hot summer day, its promise has been somewhat illusory.”

40 [10.25 am]

During my lifetime the populations of Wellington, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Kapiti have grown considerably but the associated transport infrastructure required to support such populations have not 45 kept pace. Given the central location of Wellington, is role as the county’s capital city and the strategic and economic significance of the

Kapiti Coast 08.01.13 Page 1752

state highway network it seems outrageous that logical, substantially overdue and entirely necessary improvements have not get taken place. Even today they are threatened to be quashed by the protests of local self interest. 5 Therefore I make my representation as one of some 364,000 residents that live south of Kapiti and who rely almost extensively on the sole roading artery that leads north/west from the region. It is our and the nation’s lifeline. It is badly clogged and this threatens our region’s 10 social and economic wellbeing.

I would like to emphasise that although my submission is in support of the New Zealand Transport Authority’s proposals I am not employed by the NZTA and nor do I have any other vested interest with them. 15 During this hearing and in the preceding submissions process before it the Environmental Protection Agency will have been made aware of an alternative proposal, the Western Link Route that has been offered by some as a more desirable and environmentally friendly solution to the 20 expressway proposal that is currently under consideration.

As a resident of Greater Wellington and a frequent user of State Highway 1 I would like to use this opportunity to expand on why I feel the Western Link Road should be rejected and the expressway proposal 25 endorsed.

Factors that count against the Western Link Road as a suitable alternative to the current expressway proposal – Figure 2 outlines the route with possible variance for the Western Link Road. This is 30 designed to be a two lane local connector, in other words one lane in each direction that spans the built up area of Kapiti from just north of Waikanae to . As its name suggests its primary focus is local and with the intention of easing some of the congestion pressures on the existing highway alignment. 35 Despite its local nature much of the funding to facilitate its fruition is expected to come from the national purse. This means that I, along with the rest of Greater Wellington and other non Kapiti tax payers, are expected to fund what will essentially be a glorified shopping 40 commuter’s route while we are expected to deal with the pressures on the existing network.

There are many other obvious flaws with this proposal. First, its construction is proposed to take place in three stages. This means that 45 subject to funding it may never be built in its entirety. With the

Kapiti Coast 08.01.13 Page 1753

exception of an additional crossing over Waikanae River Stage 1 will offer few additional benefits than the current configuration of roads.

The rat run behaviour that currently takes place between Kapiti, 5 Roads and State Highway 1, and that I outlined in my written submission, will simply be shifted north to Te Moana Road in Waikanae.

Second, including its connections with State Highway 1 it is a road 10 comprising some 11 intersections, and that is if you count the staggered T junctions at Ngarara Road twice. Three of the intersections are controlled by sets of traffic lights and a further three by roundabouts. Only one of the 11 has grade separation. This is not a desirable set up for the seamless flow of traffic. 15 The issues associated with holds up in traffic flow at the existing Otaki roundabout (itself touted as a solution when it was first constructed) should serve as a salient and sobering reminder of the impacts of band aid patches being applied to problems in need of more serious and 20 enduring solutions.

Third, although it is designed as being a strictly local road, given the rat run behaviour that I have already alluded to, the temptation for non- local traffic to use the Western Link Road in an effort to cut travel 25 times will be too great.

I predict that it will rapidly become a de facto piece of the State Highway network as frustrated motorists endeavouring to cope with the existing congested network rapidly make use of it. This would be 30 exacerbated in times when the existing highway gets closed between Waikanae and Otaihanga and the existing bridge over the Waikanae River is temporarily unavailable for use, for example in a severe traffic accident.

35 [10.30 am]

In essence it will simply shift the existing congestion problem slightly further west from where they currently reside.

40 (4) Assuming that nearly half of the 26,000 average annual daily trips that pass through Paraparaumu each da -, and that’s taken from New Zealand Transport Association data from 2006-10 - assuming that these are comprised of local traffic its design is hopelessly engineered to cope with such demands. 45

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Figure 3 shows some of the safety issues facing the existing highway network between Otaki and Levin. A section of State Highway 1 that also sees some 14 to 17 thousand average annual daily trips, vehicle numbers that would not be too dissimilar to the projected local use on 5 the western link route.

Comparing the blue alignment in figure 2 which the orange alignments in figure 3, the problematic issues such as tight bends, too many intersections and accessways, poor alignment and management of 10 heavy vehicles would simply get replicated on the western link route. As a taxpayer who would be expected to contribute to the western link route I would simply ask the question, “Why should I be expected to fund a road that will potentially comprise features that have been identified as problematic elsewhere and in those cases earmarked for 15 removal?”.

(5) The Western Link Road is not a future proofed road. It is designed as a local two lane road and with no grade separation at any of its intersections bar the connection with State Highway 1 at 20 Raumati South. If built as proposed it essentially makes it harder for future improvements to take place without serious disruption to the existing users. To illustrate this point the following is a list of roads in the state highway network that began as two lane roads, rapidly became inadequately equipped to cope with traffic volumes and have had to be 25 upgraded, or are in the process of being upgraded, to four lane dual carriageway or motorway standard. (1) Russley Road, State Highway 1, Christchurch, (2) Christchurch southern motorways, for example the Brougham Street arterial, (3) Caversham Hill, Dunedin, (4) Hewletts Road and harbour bridge Tauranga, (5) Upper Harbour 30 Highway, State Highway 18, Auckland, (6) Napier-Hastings expressway, State Highway 50, Taradale and (7) Albany expressway, State Highway 1 in Auckland now superseded by the Puhoi alignment.

This list is not exhaustive but it does illustrate how time and time again 35 taxpayers have paid for solutions more than once for the same problem because expediency and a lack of long term vision did not allow for a value for money investment to be made on a one off basis. Interestingly, none of the roads that I have listed above are located within Greater Wellington, a further source of frustration for many 40 residents here that witness money being lavished elsewhere around the country while we are forced to put up with dated infrastructure, in some cases dating back to the 1930s.

(6) A second two lane bridge over the Waikanae River, as offered 45 under the western link route proposal, is a poor insurance policy for use in emergencies. The spatial restrictions imposed by the railway corridor

Kapiti Coast 08.01.13 Page 1755

on the existing highway bridge over the Waikanae River make it both impractical and costly to upgrade this part of the network to dual carriageway standard. Although a second bridge constructed as part of the western link route would assist in providing an alternative, the 5 congestion and future proofing issues that I have already spoken of in points 1, 5 and 7, paragraphs 5, 7 and 9, are also directly relevant here.

By means of contrast, compare what is offered under the western link route proposal with the crossings of the Waimakariri River north of 10 Christchurch, a city of a similar size to Greater Wellington, illustrated in figure 4. On the left you can see a motorway bridge with grade separation of the two carriageways. On the right you have got the existing road. If there’s an accident on the State Highway there is still potential for at least part of the road to remain open whereas under the 15 Western Link Road, a second two lane bridge, if there’s an accident on that then potentially you have got a scenario where both roads are shut.

In addition there is provision for future proofing of the Waimakariri River crossing as shown in a ground level view depicted 20 in figure 5. In this example horizontal spans on the bridge pylons are wider than the current carriageways and allow for an additional lane be added in both directions. This is commendable far sighted thinking and represents the type of planning that should be mandatory when considering the north western corridor, State Highway 1, as it crosses 25 the Waikanae River.

[10.35 am]

Given the sizes of both Christchurch City and Greater Wellington any 30 solution for a second Waikanae River crossing should be directly comparable. New Zealand Transport Authority’s expressway proposal meets these requirements, the western link route proposal does not.

In my final section, before any concluding remarks, I would like to 35 address some of the concerns raised in opposition to the expressway by other submitters. Numerous submitters have raised concerns that the expressway will destroy their quality of life since it will contribute to an increase in exhaust fumes, noise and lighting spill et cetera. However, the same objectors seem quite happy if the existing highway 40 network is upgraded as part of western link route alternative, presumably if some other residents suffer these consequences it’s not an issue just as long as it’s not them.

As illustrated in figure 1 the provision of a motorway through Kapiti 45 has been earmarked since the mid 1950s. This should have provided ample time for due diligence to have been conducted before moving

Kapiti Coast 08.01.13 Page 1756

into the area, especially given that many areas close to the designation strip were well developed after the 1950s and I’ll refer you to figures 6 and 7.

5 In addition such environmental factors are well documented and can be mitigated. If the EPA or its predecessors did not think so they would not have granted permission for the Waterview motorway connection, a far more extensive project than the Kapiti expressway, to be constructed through suburban West Auckland where many objectors 10 would have raised similar concerns.

Another common objection is that the expressway will cut the Kapiti community in two. This is an emotive response and is not supported by fact. For example, in the Key Issues Report to the NZTA dated 8 June 15 2012, the Kapiti District Council stated on page 8, in its comments under the heading “Connectivity and accessibility” that, “There is currently a lack of east-west connectivity throughout the district”. There are historical reasons why there is a paucity of east-west connections in Kapiti and these are best illustrated by the historical 20 maps depicted in figures 6 and 7. The one on the left is taken from a topographical map produced in 1974 and the one on the right is produced from a topographical map produced in 1984. What’s inherently obvious from these two maps is the large amount of undeveloped land between the inland communities that have developed 25 along the road and rail corridors and the coastal communities that have developed along the beaches.

Even as late as the mid 1980s there was still substantial separation between coastal and urban areas. It is these features that contribute to 30 the perceived separation of communities. It is not the expressway which merely makes use of designated undeveloped land left as a consequence of historical development patterns and not because it is, in itself, inherently evil and setting out to divide the residents of Kapiti.

35 Furthermore in its Key Issues Report the Kapiti District Council also acknowledges that apart from converting Leinster Avenue into a cul- de-sac that the expressway will maintain the current east-west connectivity. Access to the expressway is granted at is northern and southern connections with the existing highway network and the two 40 major east-west arterials, Kapiti Road and Te Moana Road, will also have access. Given the provisions along the expressway corridor there is no reason why other connections cannot be added at a later date. This is commonly done along other motorway corridors in New Zealand and elsewhere. 45

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Finally, this project should not be viewed as extravagant in its cost or anti towards the environment. There is a desperate need for this region’s roading infrastructure to catch up to a level that ought to have been attained years ago given its size and population. The money 5 required for building the expressway merely reflects the under investment that has occurred for far too long. Moreover, from a green perspective, allowing for an expressway that creates a seamless and less disruptive flow of traffic will benefit the environment. It is the stop/start nature of congested traffic that creates the heavy exhaust 10 fumes that many people find obnoxious, not a well engineered road with free flowing traffic.

North and south of Kapiti other projects have been planned to help ease congestion along Wellington’s northwestern corridor. One of these, 15 Transmission Gully, has already been granted approval. It and the northern Peka Peka to Otaki section are both designed to divide a dual carriageway standard. It seems illogical therefore to reject a similar proposal in favour of something inferior and not adequately future proofed. 20 [10.40 am]

In an analogy with plumbing you would not install a piece of two inch diameter pipe into a network that contains six inch diameter sections 25 before and after it. The whole network will be poorly integrated and behave like a two inch diameter section.

In conclusion, I urge you on behalf of the residents of the greater Wellington region to endorse the NZTA’s expressway proposal. I 30 request that you consider the benefits to the entire region and not treat Kapiti’s issues in isolation. In approving other projects of this nature elsewhere in New Zealand you and your colleagues at the EPA have demonstrated confidence that many of the negative features of similar projects can be mitigated by the NZTA and its approved contractors. 35 I urge you to demonstrate that same confidence in the consideration of this proposal. Last year in a quote reported by Radio New Zealand Transport Minister, the Honourable Gerry Brownlee, summed up this nations transport dilemmas as follows: “New Zealand has a history of 40 constructing dumb roads having to add clip ons to expand Auckland’s Harbour Bridge in just ten years after it has opened and Wellington’s inadequate Terrace Tunnel are just two examples where we as a nation have got it wrong”.

45 I urge you no more dumb roads please. Please choose a solution that integrates best with the rest of the network and helps to safeguard the

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regions social, environmental and economic wellbeing. Thanks for your consideration and I am happy to answer any questions that you may have.

5 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you Dr Page, just to correct one misapprehension in your submission, we are not the EPA.

DR PAGE: Right.

10 CHAIRPERSON: We are an independent Board appointed by the Minister and the Environment, we receive administrative support from the EPA, but we are totally independent.

DR PAGE: Okay, I think the general thrust of my arguments will still apply. 15 CHAIRPERSON: Understood, but we explained that at the beginning of the hearing, for fairly obvious reasons you would not have been here but I just wanted to correct that.

20 DR PAGE: Thanks for the clarification, sure.

CHAIRPERSON: Do you have any questions? Thank you Dr Page

DR PAGE: Thank you. 25 CHAIRPERSON: Ms Lattie?

MS LATTIE: Okay, my name is Jan Lattie and I live in 5 Fowler Street, . I have been at that address for the last 30 years. 30 CHAIRPERSON: Just speak a bit more closely into the microphone and if you are reading from a reading submission, does that differ from your filed submission?

35 MS LATTIE: Not greatly no.

CHAIRPERSON: All right, well this is an opportunity to speak to that, but I just wanted to make sure you make copies available later when you have finished your submission. 40 MS LATTIE: I can do that.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, carry on.

45 MS LATTIE: I just wanted to thank the Ngā Manu people earlier for their presentation. I think it took a lot of courage. The street that I live in

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was named after Dr Fellow who was one of the founding trustees of the Ngā Manu Sanctuary so there is a connection there. I have done submissions before, always representing myself. I did one in November 2005 which was all about the coastal highway upgrade. I have done a 5 written submission in November 2009 on Kapiti’s SH1 expressway options following public meetings and I did one in February 2011 opposing the use of the Western Link Road as an expressway and August 2012 the same.

10 Now I am here today. It is a stressful activity for me. I do not like public speaking and it is scary and one gets very nervous. There is not a lot that will get me to do it, but roading seems to be something that can get me going when it starts to look damaging or not very sensible.

15 [10.45 am]

For me the roading priority for the lower North Island has always been Transmission Gully. For the last 30 years I have driven from Paraparaumu to Wellington as a commuter every working day and I’m 20 well aware of the problems of having one road out of Wellington up the West Coast north so I do think that that is the priority and for that reason I cannot, for the life of me, understand why MacKays to Peka Peka expressway would be starting this year ahead of Transmission Gully. And I’m aware of various start dates for 25 contracting firms who seem to think that they’re going to be starting work on it regardless of this hearing.

According to NZTA’s own experts a twin transport corridor in Kapiti would be highly undesirable. I’m basing that statement on a 30 presentation by a Mr Rob White at a public meeting early in 2009.

The third reason that I oppose the use of the Western Link Road. It’s been rejected by Kapiti people in the past during the 1980s when it was non as the Sandhills motorway designation. The reasons pretty much 35 are the same as then. It’s to do with the severance created by two transport corridors through one small town.

And the last reason that I’m not happy with the decision is that it’s a very, very expensive solution. We are in the middle of a prolonged 40 recession and world wide there’s a need to reduce debt not increase borrowings.

And I want to go back to that meeting early in 2009 which I mentioned. It’s all about those two transport corridors through one small town. 45 The presenters were Rob White who, at the time, was state highway manager of the Wellington NZTA. The Chair was Dr Deborah Hume

Kapiti Coast 08.01.13 Page 1760

who was the regional director central for NZTA and there were two politicians present, Steven Joyce and Nathan Guy.

The main presentation was by – well, it wasn’t the main one – but the 5 first presentation was Rob White and he presented a compelling and well researched paper on the reasons why the Western Link Road designated route was not an appropriate route for an expressway and he outlined the issues and the risks and the undesirability. He gave detailed and numerous examples of research and subsequent harm. 10 These revolved around health issues, access issues, community dislocation and severance issues, widespread and significant diminishing of property values, subsequent population shifts and changes in terms of social and economic groupings and general movement away from the area by those who could afford to make that 15 move despite the lowering of the property values near the motorway.

He also described the loss of control of economic and social wellbeing due to changing property values and population make up which, in turn, led to further social, health and economic downgrading in the 20 affected areas.

Now, since I elected to be heard at this hearing I have tried to find a copy of that paper and I have not had any success. I’ve done extensive internet research and there are a lot of reports that have been released 25 under the Official Information Act but I cannot find that presentation anywhere. I phoned the Friend of Submitters, who was extremely helpful but didn’t know the answer and didn’t know if it existed and he suggested I ring the MacKays to Peka Peka information helpline. I did, I left messages and they didn’t call back. It seems to have completely 30 disappeared but it was based on fact and it was very convincing and it would seem that it’s not being taken into consideration now.

I am really concerned about this. I believe a lot of misinformation is currently being used to justify a very bad and very damaging transport 35 decision and the great disappointment is that the two politicians, Mr Joyce and Mr Guy, who were present at that presentation then went on to knowingly misrepresent the arguments made by Mr Rob White, knowingly advocate the degree of damage and risk as presented in Mr White’s paper when, at the time, they publicly agreed with and 40 supported the findings in that same paper.

[10.50 am]

That meeting at Southwards was following by various other meetings, 45 by a lot of reactions, by surveys and at the end of which it was surmised that the Kapiti people, as such, wanted the Western Link

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Road to be re-designated again back to motorway or expressway usage and I dispute that supposition. I looked at the survey results at the time and that seemed that it was not a majority decision on the part of the Kapiti people and I’m not sure how they came to think that that was the 5 case and the survey questions were engineered to produce unclear and predetermined findings.

So another concern relating to this, and it is a close connection, is that the people at that meeting and other experts at the time who were in the 10 transportation sector no longer work for those public bodies. Dr Deborah Hume who chaired that meeting is no longer employed by NZTA. There’s a Mr Joe Hewitt who was manager transport, strategy, development at Greater Wellington Regional Council with an extensive background in public transport policy and planning, he’s no longer at 15 Greater Wellington Regional Council. Mr Rob White who presented the paper explaining and defending NZTA’s position of developing the current SH1 to expressway standards and he was the state highway manager, Wellington NZTA, with a background in transportation, no longer at NZTA. 20 I’ve looked at the information released under the Official Information Act in July 2009 after the presentation that I’m talking about, that public meeting. Rob White sends an email to Kathy Perreau of Parliamentary Services, copies five members of NZTA senior 25 management, point 17 of that, “While option 1 is the lowest cost option the severance effects associated with this option are significant”. I’ve got a copy of that report if you want it.

Option 1 was turning the Western Link Road into an expressway by the 30 way. And my question there is if it’s the lowest cost option or the reason that he gave for it being the lowest cost option, was that the planning and the purchasing, the acquisitions had already been done, but if you added those costs in, and they had been going on for a significant number of years at Kapiti ratepayers expense, then it 35 wouldn’t be the lowest cost option at all. So I’m not sure how they reached that summary but the severance effects were noted as being of significance in that solution as well.

The proponents of the western link route talk about the opponents as 40 being resistant to change, anti progress, luddites and of being local residents with self interest. I have to ask are the proponents ignoring trends rather than the so called luddites who are against this thing. The need for an expressway is based on models produced from usage of highway 1 some years ago and on the assumption that the numbers of 45 vehicle movements through the area would increase.

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In actual fact the numbers of movements have not increased and are unlikely to increase in the future. There’s a number of reasons for this. There’s a trend established and growing throughout the western world in the use of alternative transport, so that is to cars, such as bicycle, 5 walking and public transport. There’s been significant spending and improvements on the Wellington-Kapiti rail link and there’s a trend towards a reduction in the use of cars because of the re-emergence of local shopping and businesses like butchers, bakers, farmers markets and local markets and this is also a trend that’s slowly growing, so a 10 world wide trend I would add.

And because of the decision the development of the Western Link Road as a local road, which was due to begin in 2009 because all the planning and acquisitions had been completed, it’s been halted so this 15 is four years ago now. It has caused the following effect significant ways to drip public money due to the Western Link Road planning designation and purchasing work having been completed.

[10.55 am] 20 A significant increase in both risk of an actual congestion caused by accidents on Highway One. Numerous incidents over the last three years of delays up to four hours because there is no alternative route and we are now talking the last four years. 25 The basic maintenance and improvement work on Highway One in the region appears to have been suspended since 2009 since that decision resulting in a decrease in fuel efficiency and an increase in maintenance costs of vehicle users and unusually, and this is specifically Kapiti slow 30 and sluggish property market with unpredictable sales values ranging from well above to well below rate or value levels resulting in an inability to establish property values in the region. There is an obvious trickle effect on other economic factors for the region.

35 I guess I am opposing this thing in full because I do not think that the community severance arguments have been answered. That would be the core of my objection and the ongoing problems like having presented in 2005 and that related to Transmission Gully, there has been a number of decisions since, there is still no Transmission Gully 40 and it has been such a long time, it really has. I just do not understand why this thing would be starting this year in terms of starting to turn the soil as it were when we are stills struggling to have any sort of manifestation of the Transmission Gully plans.

45 CHAIRPERSON: Well you do understand we have no power over, if we approved it when it starts or not. It is not a matter for us at all.

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MS LATTIE: No, but it is part of it and if you look at the bigger picture - - -

CHAIRPERSON: Well it is still not something we can influence in any way 5 at all.

MS LATTIE: Okay.

CHAIRPERSON: We can either approve this or refuse it that is the choice we 10 have with only an ability under the law to make quite minor modifications of the designation. We cannot say “you must do Transmission Gully first” as an example. MS LATTIE: No, but I wanted to be heard.

15 CHAIRPERSON: That is fine. No, I fully understand that as I said to the previous witnesses.

MS LATTIE: Thank you.

20 CHAIRPERSON: It is important that you have this opportunity to Nga Manu even if it is outside our powers and this is an opportunity to do so, but I do not want people to be misapprehending that we have some sort of God like power that we do not. Is there anything else you wanted to say? 25 MS LATTIE: No, that is it, thank you very much.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much.

30 MR APELDOORN: I do have a question. Just a very short simple one thanks. You made reference to an email that contained some discussion about severance. I just wondered if you could also make that information available to the EPA afterwards so that we can have that on file please. 35 MS LATTIE: Yes, definitely. I have got that here.

MR APELDOORN: Thank you.

40 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.

MS LATTIE: Thank you very much.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr and Mrs Smith? 45 MRS SMITH: Can I just start?

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CHAIRPERSON: Yes.

MRS SMITH: Good morning Mr Chairman and the Board. My name is 5 Mary-Anne Smith and I am speaking here on behalf of my husband Peter and myself. We are personal submitters and our submission is number 11.

For me to be here and speak to you is all quite daunting because I am 10 not used to speaking in public. Like some people that wrote into our local newspaper to comment on having to provide ten hardcopies and an electronic copy I nearly decided not to attend the hearing at all because it all seems very hard for a lay person to cope with. After a discussion of our position with my husband we decided that we would 15 still like to retain our option to be heard here.

[11.00 am]

We will confess that we have not read or heard neither all of the 20 evidence presented nor all of the hearing transcripts that have been provided on line. A lot of the terminology in some of the evidence has gone right over the heads but we generally get the gist of most of it, and I am going to try to relay to you how much the proposed expressway has impacted on us personally. 25 Please excuse me if you have difficulty understanding what I am - - -

CHAIRPERSON: Just take your time.

30 MRS SMITH: Sorry.

Please excuse me if you have difficulty understanding what I am trying to relay to you because my nerves and emotions may get the better of me. 35 We would like to thank NZTA for attending the one on one consultations that we have had both by visits to our house and various emails and telephone conversations. We appreciate that our requests were acted on by NZTA. We would also like to thank the Board for 40 taking the time to conduct a site visit to our property.

Arising from the site visit by the Board we spent a very anxious and stressful weekend because we were informed by Richard, the friend of the submitter, that the fence on our boundary was not going to be two 45 metres, but in fact it was going to be three metres high. As soon as we found out that out I looked on the NZTA website at the scheme plan

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and sure enough there was a three metre high wall on our boundary plus two of our close neighbours as well. I contacted Richard for more information as to what action we need to take as NZTA had not informed us of that fact. 5 Then when we heard back from Richard that the wall was going to be two metres and that the three metres was a typo, another shock as we would have thought that the experts and professionals would get it right. 10 On that note I would also like to mention another typo or omission that I noted when I first read the evidence in regard to the construction noise. I was shocked and flabbergasted to see that the houses over the road from us were mentioned as being in construction noise hot spots 15 but there was no mention of our property.

I rang NZTA and spoke to someone there who I think was Julie Black (ph 2.47). She said that she could see that we were not mentioned but that if I looked further I would see a diagram of our property as well 20 within the red zone. After some time I noted that we had been added as an after note, and that is in Attachment 1.

Once again we felt that NZTA had forgotten about us and how close our house was going to be to the proposed expressway which was very 25 disheartening as far as we are concerned.

Even though most of our concerns that we have raised in our submission have been answered by the experts and consultants in the evidence we are still not satisfied with the situation. It is unfair and 30 unjust to expect us or anyone else in a similar situation to live among eight lanes of traffic all of which are going to be extremely close to our house.

In our case our bedroom is going to be approximately 22 metres from 35 the Kapiti Road off-ramp. Our main living area is going to end up with a view of a solid wall two metres from our kitchen window and dining area French door. We did not move to Kapiti to have that outlook and indeed if we wanted to live like that we would have bought at apartment in the city. 40 No-one from NZTA has been able to guarantee that we or anyone else in a similar situation will not be compromised in any way. The evidence that I have reading from the experts and professional consultants that NZI has hired does not give us any satisfaction at all. 45 They say things like, “I believe” or “In my opinion”. This is not acceptable to us at all. At the very least we want (and feel that we are

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entitled to) an unconditional written guarantee that the proposed expressway is in no way going to disadvantage us both financially and health wise.

5 Even though we have been told that NZTA will not be purchasing our property, (and there is an attachment No. 2 which is a letter from Rod James, dated 18/07/2012.

[11.05 am] 10 We think that in all fairness NZTA should have to buy any property where an occupied house is within 50 metres or less of a proposed expressway.NZTA could then sell those properties once the expressway is finished and up and running. At least then it is not us, the 15 residents, that will have to suffer the disruption, losses and stress that are being caused to our lives. In hindsight, and in our situation, if NZTA purchased our property this would definitely be the best possible outcome.

20 There is mention that during night-time construction of the Kapiti Road over bridge that some residents will be relocated, and we are one of those residents. That to us is absolutely ridiculous, because if it is common knowledge that it will most likely happen then how safe are our houses going to be? If it is not going to be suitable for people to 25 live in their own homes while construction is taking place, then surely that is another reason why NZTA should have to bear the risk and buy our properties and take the risk that they can resell. No one should have to suffer that stress for a road.

30 No one that we have spoken to about our particular situation would want to live so close to any major road, interchange or bridge, especially while construction is taking place. We have relatives here in New Zealand, Australia and Italy and they are all shocked that our house has not been purchased by NZTA. 35 When we have shown people the plans for the proposed expressway and how close we actually are we have been advised to contact nationwide media groups because of the unfairness of the situation.

40 As well as having to live within 20 metres of eight lanes of traffic, I am also going to have to work very close to the expressway, as I work at 102 Kapiti Road, so by going to work I will not be getting any respite at all.

45 In summing up, I would like to say that we are totally stressed, worn out and gutted by the situation and the fact that NZTA has not given us

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any recompense other than to say they are erecting a two metre high wooden fence on our boundary to mitigate the noise pollution.

Unlike us, NZTA has the advantage of being able to pay untold 5 amounts of money on experts and professional consultants and legal advice. These experts and professionals have, at the end of the day, been paid for by us, the taxpayer.

We are still considering our options in regard to legal representation, 10 but in reality we do not think that we should have to spend our hard earned retirement savings on a lawyer or other representation to act on our behalf.

We do not want to live so close to these roads and do not see why it 15 should be at our expense that we get the best possible outcome for us. We are not against the proposed expressway per se, because we know in reality that something needs to be done to alleviate the traffic issues, but we cannot see why we or anyone else should be expected to live within 20 metres of eight roads, four of which will be travelling at 20 100+ km per hour.

With the Kapiti Road off ramp being so close to our house we are dreading to think what it is going to be like in terms of pollution, braking and deceleration at peak times as the expressway traffic merges 25 onto Kapiti Road.

Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you Mrs Smith and Mr Smith. Thank you, you may 30 stand down. Thank you for your submission.

We will take the morning adjournment at this stage, thank you.

ADJOURNED [11.09 am] 35 RESUMED [11.33 am]

CHAIRPERSON: Yes, thank you. Dr Anderton and Ms Abigail, if you just come forward please. Now you filed a submission and you wish to 40 speak to that submission?

MS ABIGAIL: Yes, sir.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, you may either stand or be seated just 45 whichever you prefer.

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MS ABIGAIL: We are going to stand in turns.

CHAIRPERSON: Okay, thank you.

5 MS ABIGAIL: Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa. Good morning your Honour and members of the Board. My name is Jill Abigail. Dr Joy Anderton and I own a 7.3 hectare property in Te Hapua Road north of Peka Peka. 4.1 hectares or 10 acres of the property is a wetland that is part of the Te Hapua Swamp, a wetland complex that runs from 10 slightly north of Peka Peka almost to Beach.

The Te Hapua Swamp is designated as having national significance because of the rarity of such complexes, most having been drained for farming or development. The swamp complex is similar to those within 15 the project’s footprint.

Our presentation to you today will give particular emphasis to the topic of wetlands. In the expressway proposal as a whole the loss of some wetland areas may seem a relatively small item but to us any loss of 20 wetland is tragic. Although New Zealand was one of the last places on earth to be settled by humans it has one of the worst records of native biodiversity loss.

Habitat destruction including the draining of wetlands and the 25 fragmentation and degrading of ecosystems is one of the contributors to this loss. 90 percent of New Zealand’s wetlands have already gone. Any further destruction must not be tolerated. We ourselves have for the past 13 years been restoring the natural wetland on our property which we have covenanted for its protection and we have undertaken a 30 great deal of research on these sensitive ecosystems.

[11.35 am]

We have sought and received expert advice and have gained hands on 35 practical experience in the management of wetlands including the observation of cause and effects. The irony of our situation is that as private landowners we have had support from government agencies in protecting the natural capital of dunes and wetlands on our own property. Now we find ourselves in the bizarre position of having to 40 advocate for the protection of large tracts of fragile dune wetland environment from inappropriate land use, proposed not by a developer but by the Crown.

Since our original submission to the Board we have read much of the 45 scientific evidence put forward by experts who have been tasked with looking at the effects of the proposed expressway on the Kapiti Coast

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district. We acknowledge the enormous amount of work that officials and experts have undertaken in seeking to minimise the negative impact of the expressway on the environment. However, sir, nothing we have read has convinced us that the cost that will be borne by 5 Kapiti’s human communities and natural environment can be justified if this project proceeds.

In our view the evidence points to one conclusion. The proposed expressway would disrupt communities, drain wetlands, disturb 10 sensitive sand dunes, dig up native vegetation, destroy rare plant and animal habitat and disperse toxic waste into the waterways and the air. Despite the litany of mitigation and remedial measures the experts have described it is our view, sir, that the proposed expressway violates the Resource Management Act and Dr Anderton will detail our reasons for 15 this view.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.

DR ANDERTON: Your Honour, we believe that the proposal deviates from 20 the stated purposes of the RMA part 2, section 5 and paragraph 1 and 2A, B and C which I won’t read out for brevity.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.

25 DR ANDERTON: The project would leave an extensive permanent footprint on an area of the country whose environmental threat status is acutely threatened. If this project were the only solution to the district’s traffic congestion then it could be justifiable. The fact is that there are other efficient economically viable alternatives that would acknowledge the 30 Kapiti Coast for what it is, an area of nationally significant natural environment and a peaceful place for human, plant and animal species to live. In an acutely threatened environment, no matter how modified by previous development or farming, sustainable management means protection and restoration not destruction. 35 The impact of the proposed expressway on wetland dune ecosystems does not promote their sustainable management. Firstly, we do not believe the project will result in wetland gain. Wetlands have long been at the bottom of the conservation stakes. They have been 40 systematically drained for housing, for animal grazing, for rubbish tips, for the construction of airports. They have been undervalued as natural filters of groundwater, reducing nutrients, chemicals and suspended sediment, as flood protection, as food sources for fish and birds and as valuable habitats for some of our most endangered fish and bird 45 species. They have not been recognised as living, breathing ecosystems that sustain rich diversity.

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We have read that wetlands are regarded by Maori as being like the organs that cleanse the body such as the kidneys and the liver. For Maori wetlands have been sources of food, of medicinal plants, of 5 materials for weaving and carving. They continue to have both spiritual and cultural value.

We acknowledge that effort has been made to avoid some of the best examples of wetlands within the project designation but the applicant 10 accepts that there will be loss of wetland areas in the construction of the proposed expressway.

[11.40 am]

15 The applicant claims that this loss will be mitigated by the construction of new wetlands, that there will be a net gain in wetlands as a result of the project. Yet we see from the evidence that some of what has been proposed are, at best, artificially constructed stormwater treatment ponds with native planting at their edges and, at worst, lined storage 20 areas for toxic runoff for heavy metal contaminants.

The latter so called wetlands should more accurately be described or designated as motor vehicle effluent ponds. We submit that utilising the ability of constructed wetlands to deal with the excrement from this 25 expressway is better than leaving it to seep over the whole surrounding countryside but their construction can in no way be considered a gain for the environment.

Secondly, who would carry responsibility for ongoing care of these 30 new wetlands? We note that experts advise transplanting planting material from wetlands that would be destroyed by the project and re- vegetating some areas of wetland that are at present in a degraded or unprotected state. This sounds a laudable proposal but we have real concerns about its sustainability. Our question is who would maintain 35 these plantings?

From our years of personal experience we know the endless hard work that goes into maintaining large areas of planting. We have had to replace some of our plants up to three times. Despite employing the 40 best vegetation practices of proper plant choice, plant protection and weed control the challenges are enormous. Rabbits and hares chew plantings to death, salt winds kill them and exotic weeds throttle them. Is the applicant preparing to spend large amounts of money for the next decade or two on the staff and equipment needed to maintain these 45 areas or would it be up to volunteers to do the mundane environmental housework long after the experts have moved on?

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We have found little acknowledgement in the expert evidence of the thousands of hours of voluntary labour that has gone into restoring, for example the current fernbird habitat at Waikanae Estuary which would 5 be destroyed by the proposed expressway. If a new habitat is constructed we can safely predict it will not be paid scientists who spend cold wintry days building the fernbirds a new home, replacing the plants that have been pulled out by vandals or even pukekos and resetting predator traps. No, sir, it would be unpaid volunteers, usually 10 elderly people who put their hands in their pockets to fund these conservation efforts as well as faithfully giving their time and energy.

We also believe the proposal contravenes the requirements of the Resource Management Act part 2 6A, B, C and E, to preserve the 15 natural character of the coastal environment and to protect it from inappropriate use and development.

The proposal does not adequately value elements of the natural character of wetlands and dunes within the coastal environment. 20 Firstly, we do not believe that indigenous flora and fauna have been appropriately valued or possibly even identified. We read from the evidence the disagreement among ecologists as to the value of the flora and fauna of the various wetlands in the project area. This comes as no surprise to us. We have been involved over the years in efforts to save 25 the Te Tahua (ph 4.21) swamp complex from what we consider to be inappropriate development. We have had the experience of ecologists for the developers saying that an area contains nothing of value while ecologists from the Regional Council or from a Botanical Society quickly spot significant populations of rare and valuable plants. 30 Especially around the sometimes wet and sometimes dry margins the most experienced botanists can easily miss tiny important plants. Once the earthmoving machinery moves in anything overlooked in a botanical survey will be lost for ever.

35 [11.45 am]

We are also concerned that debates over the actual extent of indigenous vegetation and wetlands do not represent the precautionary approach required when dealing with wetland ecosystems. 40 The only reason anyone argues for a reduction in wetland boundaries is to enable activity such as road building, grazing or development to occur or to reduce the area that would incur ongoing maintenance costs.

45 During 2006 and 2007 we spent many hours in Council and Environment Court mediations arguing against the redrawing of

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wetland boundaries that diminished one section of the Te Hapua Swamp Heritage site. For unlike a forest where you know you are either in it or you are not in it, the ephemeral and seasonal nature of the wetland water levels means you cannot be so sure where a wetlands 5 begins and ends.

Wetlands that are reduced in extent or fragmented are always much more vulnerable to disturbance and weed infestation. They are also less valuable as species habitat. Having generous margins around 10 wetlands and patches of indigenous vegetation is crucially important. We are not confident that this would happen if the expressway were to proceed.

Secondly, we are concerned that inadequate knowledge of wetland 15 hydrology would expose wetlands within the proposed expressway footprint as well as those outside it to unacceptable risk. One thing ecologists and hydrologists in this project do agree on is that they do not know enough about the hydrology of wetlands to know for sure what impact the expressway construction would have. They also agree 20 that even small effects can have a large impact.

Again, citing our experience with the Te Hapua Swamp and the arguments between developers and conservationists, it became clear that nobody had any factual data on the water flows. As a consequence 25 ahead of any further attempts at development, the Te Hapua Swamp now has hydrological monitoring with the information being fed back to greater Wellington’s headquarters.

The report of findings so far demonstrate that the hydrology of 30 interdunal wetlands is complex and drainage or earthworks in surrounding dunes makes these vulnerable to unintended consequences. In the case of the expressway proposal since the applicant’s scientists agree they do not know what the affects would be, how can the application be allowed to go ahead before sufficient data has been 35 collected.

Thirdly we do not believe adequate attention has been paid to the loss and disturbance of peat that would occur during construction of the expressway. The applicant estimates that approximately 440,000 cubic 40 metres of sand and peat would be removed during the construction of the expressway.

Peat is a nationally significant material for several reasons. It contains indigenous plants and animals, some of which are found nowhere else. 45 It uniquely acts like a sponge reducing flooding by soaking up excess water and releasing it in periods of drought and it acts as a carbon sink.

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Has the cost of contributing to global climate change by the loss of locked up carbon from the disturbed peat been factored into the overall costs of the expressway.

5 Since peat builds at a rate of one millimetre a year or 90 to 100 millimetres per century, it would take many many thousands of years to replace the lost peat. We consider this adverse effect to be more than minor.

10 Finally, we do not accept that adaptive management techniques satisfy the RMA requirements to protect and preserve. Protection and preservation imply measures taken for an event. The applicants experts suggest monitoring for two to five years and if adverse effects occur, applying adaptive management techniques. 15 Adaptive management sounds to us like making the best of a bad job or shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

[11.50 am] 20 Sanitising the language does not alter the fact that it means trying to fix something you knew all along was at risk of happening. It also does not disguise the fact that some effects may be fatal and not able to be fixed at all. 25 Many indigenous wetland plants rely on fluctuating water levels and would die out if areas stay permanently wet or permanently dry. Others require a relatively stable water table and would also be lost if conditions change. We suggest applying adaptive management 30 techniques is simply not good enough in any threatened ecosystem.

In conclusion, your Honour, we have in this presentation concentrated our concerns primarily on just one aspect of this project – the loss of environmental values. We would like to conclude by broadening our 35 comments.

Who would benefit from the proposed expressway? Certainly not the local people who live here. Waikanae was a few years ago voted the best little town in New Zealand. Waikanae is the community that would 40 be worst affected in this exercise.

It is located in such a narrow stretch between the hills and the sea that there would be no part of the erstwhile lovely, peaceful community that would be free from the noise and pollution of this gigantic elevated 45 structure. It would no longer be a discreet town with its own special

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character; it would merely become part of the corridor out of Wellington.

We accept the traffic congestion on State Highway 1 through this 5 district is problem and needs fixing. We do not accept that the proposed solution is appropriate. There are alternatives to imposing a four lane highway through a fragile coastal environment and the Board has arguments for these from other submitters.

10 Sir, the Board has had to read thousands of pages of documentation and listen to hundreds of hours of evidence. Engineers, planners and scientists have supplied you with a mass of detail. As community members we are asking some bigger questions.

15 What is the morality of imposing this expressway on an area that has up until now been known and chosen by people for its peace and quiet? What is the morality of spending millions of dollars on this proposed expressway when our country is in debt and will go further into debt to finance it? 20 We know that questions of morality are probably not part of the Board’s terms of reference but this is the last chance we have as two citizens who will have to live with your decision to plead our case from the heart. 25 We request the Board to decline the application and thank you for having us here today.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. 30 MR APELDOORN: Yes, I just have one question please. You made a statement there and I am interested to sort of understand the background about it, that peat is a nationally significant material?

35 DR ANDERTON: Yes.

MR APELDOORN: Is this your assessment of the value of peat or is there some statute or some other weight behind that that we should be aware of? 40 DR ANDERTON: Yes. There is certainly a mass of evidence in one particular reference that we used which is the reference that we have quoted – Janet Hunt on page 6 at the top. There is a very good section there. I am quite sure there are other equally reputable sources but that is 45 certainly one that we have used to reach this conclusion.

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MR APELDOORN: Right. Okay, thank you. Thank you, sir.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much.

5 DR ANDERTON: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Now, Mr Glover, if you would come forward please?

[11.55 am] 10 MR GLOVER: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: Now, you can either stand or sit, as you prefer, Mr Glover. We have your filed submission so this is your opportunity to speak to 15 that now. Thank you.

MR GLOVER: Right. I am just reminding everyone that I have opposed the application in full for the expressway because I believe the alternatives have not been thoroughly investigated. 20 The alternative is to - - -

CHAIRPERSON: If you would just take your hand off because it interferes and it will not get through. If you just speak from there in a normal 25 voice it will pick it up, do not worry.

MR GLOVER: Okay. The alternative has not been thoroughly investigated. The alternative is to upgrade the present highway to four lanes roughly on its present route, and that would keep the traffic noise pollution and 30 severance roughly on the same route as the railway, which is also a significant source of noise, away from the heart of the Kapiti Coast community.

I fully recognise the need for a four lane highway. We need a highway 35 that is four lanes all the way through to solve the problem of traffic flow. It would not necessarily need to be 100k, free of traffic lights all the way to start with, but the main problem is traffic flow.

The four lanes in combination with Plan B, which includes two local 40 road bridges over the Waikanae River, one that has been on a plan since 1996 between Makora Road, Otaihanga and Wiggery Drive West, Waikanae Beach and another bridge between Greenaway Road and Otaihanga Road near Ratanui Road would serve local traffic needs quite nicely. 45

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These local links would only ever be used by highway traffic in the event of an emergency such an accident closing the highway but such events would be rare if the highway was upgraded to four lanes, not necessarily with a median barrier all the way but certainly a flush 5 median keeping the traffic further apart.

There is a good example of a flush median or actually a dual centre line to be exact – it goes between Waikanae and further north heading towards Peka Peka, there is a one metre wide strip in the middle. That 10 is the sort of thing we need just to keep the traffic apart, but this road could be upgraded to four lanes. And the highway would not need to be upgraded to four lanes all the way to start with, it could be done in stages starting at Poplar Avenue working towards Raumati Road, Ihakara Street, Kapiti Road and then further on to Waikanae, and 15 included in this would be adding another turning lane for traffic only turning into Te Moana Road it would go through an area next to the Mobil Service Station at Waikanae that is currently rose gardens and a strip of cross. That would solve some of the traffic flow problems of State Highway 1 and Waikanae. 20 To start with we can leave Kapiti lights and Waikanae lights as is. Later on if necessary these could be upgraded to split grade intersections but the main issue we are trying to solve right now is traffic flow and we do not need to be spending $600 million and 25 destroying the Kapiti Coast and environment in the process creating community severance, noise and pollution right through the heart of Kapiti when there is clearly a better alternative that is going to solve the problems that we are trying to solve.

30 What we are trying to achieve is better traffic flow both on State Highway 1 and on the local road network, and by the way I do not think that the Western Link Road is the answer to solving local traffic problems. It was never intended as local road and is totally out of alignment with the local road network and would mean much longer 35 travelling distances to get from one part of the Kapiti Coast district to another for the local traffic. The best solution for the local traffic is plan B which is quite simply linking up local roads from the most direct point without creating too many extra roads.

40 [12.00 pm]

We have actually got quite a good road network but there is just a few missing links. One of the missing links is between Matai Road and Arawhata Road. There is space for such a road near the Western Link 45 designation which would bypass Rimu Road and create a more direct route for traffic going between Raumati South and Arawhata Road, Paraparaumu.

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Upgrading State Highway One can be done in stages and if I am saying it properly I am going through Waikanae and then further north towards Peka Peka, Te Horo, Otaki and Levin. Levin is where you 5 have another highway, State Highway 57 going north so you have some split in the traffic.

There is also potential for another route between Levin and Palmerston but that is not part of this, but the main thrust with this is to achieve 10 four lanes between Hill Road and Levin. At Paekakariki Hill Road we have four lanes going between Wellington and Kapiti. At Levin we have four lanes going between Levin and Palmerston, but it is this two lane stretch of highway that we need to have upgraded up to four lanes. It does not have to be split grade intersections all the way. 15 The main thing we are trying to achieve is traffic flow once again.

I would just like everyone to know that I have had a part to play in increasing the number of routes for pedestrians and cyclists around the Kapiti Coast District. I am not a car only person. I cycle and walk as 20 well and I consider the needs of all road users, not just motorists and if I had my way would never have been built without a cycleway back in 1959 when it was first built to four lanes.

That bridge is effectively the missing link for cycling and pedestrians 25 in the city of Auckland. We do not want to make such mistakes again. We need to consider all road users, not just motorists. There are a number of severance issues that haven’t been thoroughly investigated. If the expressway goes through as planned it will cut off some informal paths linking the Makarini Street and Guildford Drive areas and there is 30 potential for more informal paths, but currently due to bad planning, there are no gaps in a lot of properties on Makarini Street so that you cannot take a shortcut between Makarini Street and (INDISTINCT 4.40) Crescent to Guildford Drive and this potential future link will be severed by the expressway. 35 Another place where links will be severed is between Leinster Ave and Matai Road so what I think the best thing is to keep our community severance in one place, the railway and the highway all in one place effectively with plan B linking local roads, not the Western Link Road, 40 plan B.

It will give us four lanes of local traffic upgrading the Highway One to four lanes roughly on its present route with a few minor deviations gives us another four lanes, that is eight lanes and that is more than 45 enough. Even if it is not 100 k all the way with split road sections all the way, it is still going to achieve the traffic flow that we need. I must

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stress that we need to have a proper intersection at Paekakariki. Traffic lights all around will do as an interim but long term we need some sort of split road intersection, a flyover on State Highway One going over the Beach Road, Paekakariki Hill Road intersection because 5 Paekakariki Hill Road is the only other highway between Kapiti and Wellington.

[12.05 pm]

10 It is only one of three highways out of the Wellington region apart from taking the ferry to the South Island. In an emergency the Paekakariki Hill Road has been used a number of times to take most or all of the State Highway 1 traffic. A while back the Coastal Road was closed for two weeks and Paekakariki Hill Road was the only way in and out for 15 all traffic including trucks and buses. Recently there was an accident on the Coastal Highway closing the highway for a few hours creating a 40 kilometre long traffic jamb going between Pukerua Bay and Otaki. There is a real need for the Paekakariki Hill Road to be considered as an alternative highway and needs further safety and improvements until 20 we get Transmission Gully built, at least the first stage or at least two lanes of it, the first stage between Paekakariki that is (INDISTINCT 1.09) and Battle Hill Reserve.

We need to improve the safety of this essential piece of highway 25 between Paekakariki intersection and Battle Hill Reserve. As the old main highway it is windy in places and narrow, but there is potential for further safety improvements and it should really be taken over by the government as a state highway just like the Patua Track in the Saddle Road near Palmerston, but they should also be state highways. 30 I would add that New Zealand only has a very small number of state highways and it should really have a three digit state highway system and instead of up to 100 state highways, it should have up to a 1000 state highways taken over and run by the government instead of by 35 local authorities. This of course would include the Akatarawa Road that would be state highway as well.

The New Zealand road network is vastly inferior to the works overseas and the amount of money spent is only a fraction of what is spent on 40 road networks overseas in North America and Europe and even parts of South America.

Missing links is one of our main problems. We have a fairly good road network but just a few missing links and that would solve a lot of 45 problems. That is really is what plan B is about. It is about making best possible use of an existing road network and just putting a few

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missing links and it would include a road between the north of Paekakariki and Queen Elizabeth Park and another local road between Wellington Road and the Esplanade. It would only be used by local traffic. It would not be carrying high volumes of traffic and it would 5 not be noisy and it would have lower speed limits and traffic calming when necessary.

It is all part of making the best possible use of the existing resources we have without spending vast amounts of money which we can't afford 10 and there is no point in adding to the debt that we already have. In fact for the amount of money already spent on consultants for the Western Link Road, we could have two local road bridges in place and have local roads in place of some sort and we would not have traffic flow problems. 15 As well as upgrading the highways and local road we must do something urgently about the intersection at Paekakariki because that is the only way where you can get out of the Paekakariki Hill Road which can carry quite large volumes of traffic at peak times and once again it 20 is making use of what we already have. We have a road that is two lanes sealed all the way between Paekakariki and Pauatahanui and we are not able to use this for traffic going north because of a very dangerous intersection. This could be solved very easily by building a flyover that is on State Highway One carrying State Highway One 25 traffic above the Paekakariki Hill Road, Beach Road intersection.Traffic lights or a roundabout would do as a short term or interim solution.

I am also in favour of upgrading the rail network, double tracks so far but extending the electrification to Otaki and beyond and double 30 tracking as well. Once again I do consider all modes of transport and not just motor vehicle transport.

[12.10 pm]

35 But I stress that we do need a four lane highway and the places on State Highway 1 where the deviations would be is one Paraparaumu overbridge, (ph 0.10) there is a bit of straightening out there to do and a new four lane overbridge. (INDISTINCT 0.20) interchange would need to be upgraded to four lanes and at the Otaihanga intersection 40 there is a need for a deviation, straightening out the bend at the Otaihanga Road/State Highway 1 intersection and, of course, the need for an upgraded intersection there, preferably still at grade but a four lane or roundabout would do as an interim.

45 At the Waikanae end there is a need for a second river crossing. The existing river bridge will be one way and there’s a need for another

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right across the railway for the new two lane road going north. It would need an overbridge over the railway and a second river bridge at Waikanae.

5 The situation at Otaki is different. There may be a need for a bypass there still because of the situation with the problem of getting four lanes through the Otaki town but that’s not part of this subject. We’re only dealing here with the piece of road between Peka Peka and Raumati area. 10 So once again I just want to make it very clear that I’m not in favour of the Western Link Road as a local road, we can do a lot better than that. And putting the local arterial road on the Western Link Road or the Sandhills designation is going to encourage highway traffic to go 15 through our community. We want to make it as difficult as possible for large volumes of highway traffic to go through local roads unless they really have to such as in the event of an emergency. By making local roads difficult for highway traffic they won’t be keen to use this unless they’re on a scenic drive. So, no, I don’t think the Western Link Road 20 is in the best interests of the Kapiti Coast district.

CHAIRPERSON: Okay, thank you, Mr Glover, is there anything else you wish to add?

25 MR GLOVER: I’ll just check my list.

CHAIRPERSON: Just check your notes.

MR GLOVER: Okay, that’s all I have got to say. 30 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr Glover.

MR GLOVER: And I have got additional copies of plan B, if anyone wants those. 35 CHAIRPERSON: We have already been given that, thank you.

MR GLOVER: There’s another 10 copies at least.

40 CHAIRPERSON: We have already got our ones so that is very kind, thank you. Thank you, Mr Glover, and we are grateful for all the work you have done in your submission. Mr and Mrs Peters.

MS PETERS: Just me. 45 CHAIRPERSON: Just you, okay, come forward.

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MS PETERS: Mr Peters is working.

CHAIRPERSON: So are we. 5 MS PETERS: Yes, we’re all working. I was going to say good morning but it’s actually good afternoon now so good afternoon to everybody and thank you very much for hearing us. I am just a private citizen and I haven’t got a great deal of any technical evidence but I have read a lot 10 of the technical evidence that has been submitted and I have made a submission of four pages which I believe you have already read and I have just done a brief one page summary and I think that’s been distributed, has it?

15 CHAIRPERSON: Yes, thank you.

MS PETERS: Yes, okay, good. My submission totally opposes the proposed expressway between MacKays Crossing and Peka Peka, all right. I am a retired teacher and university tutor and my husband and I moved to 20 Raumati South to get away from the rat race and go to a very peaceful, comfortable place where we thought we would retire after we’d finished working. And unfortunately we have been forced by this motorway proposal, I have felt forced to move house and I have moved from Raumati South now to Otaki Beach where I think I’m relatively 25 safe from any disruption I hope.

My submission dealt with general objections under various headings, “Economic”, “Geographical”, “Social”, “Environment” et cetera but my main thrust is the personal impact on human beings in Kapiti Coast, 30 us, the Kapiti coasters, particularly my health and wellbeing and I’m sure there are a lot of people in very similar situations to me.

Now, I have had experience of living near motorways when I lived overseas and I know how difficult it is to live near a motorway to get 35 any sleep and so on. So the thought of this, I know it’s not called a motorway but it’s a motorway, expressway, I think of myself as a sort of canary down the mine because I can imagine how terrible it’s going to be because even though my house wasn’t in the path of the motorway I would have heard it and I would have seen the light from 40 it, it would have disrupted my peaceful house. It would also have meant that every time went for any sort of outing to go to the shops, to go to the doctor, the dentist, anything at all, I would have had to go somewhere close to this monstrosity.

45 And I couldn’t understand why this was being thrust upon us because my guiding principle in life is balance. Balance is the key, I think, to

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life and in something like a motorway proposal you have to look at the costs versus the benefits and not only just financial costs but other costs. And what is the benefit of this expressway? Economically the cost benefit ratio I have read about is going as low as 0.2 which means 5 that for every dollar spent 80 cents is wasted. I think this is a huge economic loss for the whole country not just Kapiti.

Some private trucking firms think they will save a few minutes time and money in getting their goods to Wellington, some businesses 10 believe they will have improved custom. However, I disagree with that and on page 3 of my submission I have explained the experience we had in Raumati when there were road works which disrupted traffic flow around the Raumati Village and it caused a lot of businesses, even though it was only for a few months - two or three I think – one, my 15 favourite shop, went under. A lot of the businesses were suffering and that was only a few months so I can imagine, I have imagination and I can imagine that businesses in the Kapiti Coast are not going to thrive. They’re going to have the same experience as we had at Raumati.

20 And this possible private benefits that some people imagine, what is it going to do to the community? What is it going to do to all of us having this extra big monstrosity cutting through our community again? It’s splitting it geographically where it’s already split and the gentleman before me was talking about other roading options which 25 wouldn’t do this. It’s going to destroy at least 80 houses and gardens, destroying the beautiful gardens and the beautiful trees we have got around this area. Increasing pollution, destroying our peace and this is the main thing, it’s already destroyed my peace, you can probably hear I’m a bit upset about it. It’s destroyed our peace but what it’s going to 30 do if it’s allowed to continue, we’re going to have at least five to 10 years of destruction while it’s being built, destruction in construction. It’s a contradiction in terms, isn’t it? But it’s going to ruin this Kapiti area forever. It is never ever going to be improved or reclaimed. The peace and quiet, the whole community will be 35 destroyed.

[12.20 pm]

Nobody is going to want to live around here with a monstrous four lane 40 motorway cutting through and any visitors, this is what I can’t understand why people think there are going to be some visitors coming here. They are going to be on this wonderful new bypass and they are going to be whisked up north to Levin or whisked down to Wellington. Are they going to stop here? Very few of them I think. 45

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The other thing is I care about my country. I care about New Zealand. Can New Zealand afford this? No, how can it. We are supposed to be having funds from asset sales, yes, well most of us are against that I think and the government has not managed to sell any yet. 5 Now the latest plan is that the funds for this monstrosity will come from increased petrol taxes and I am sure we are all very happy about that. We cannot afford it and as I did not know, the gentleman before me was going to put this forward to you, but there are simple 10 alternatives for the mainly holiday traffic congestion on our Coast and I feel that simply to build another bridge over the Waikanae River further down in one of those areas that were talked about will take most of the traffic off State Highway One, all the local traffic.

15 That will calm State Highway One down and give plenty of time for it to be upgraded at leisure in stages. There are simple alternatives and cheaper alternatives and if the Kapiti Coast District Council’s two lane Western Link Road had actually been allowed to start we would have already have had that bridge. That was the first thing that was going to 20 be built and then we would not have this horrible monstrosity threatening us.

I am really pleading from the heart as an endangered species of Kapiti Coaster, I am still just hanging onto being in the Kapiti Coast up in 25 Otaki, but I can assure you that if this thing goes ahead I will never visit this area of the Kapiti Coast again. I will do all my business further north.

I am just pleading with you, really really pleading with you to give it 30 some thought about the people who live here.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.

MRS PETERS: Thank you. 35 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you Mrs Peters. Ms Clarke? I am sorry I jumped one. No, you go ahead and we will come back to Ms Thornton. I am sorry Mrs Thornton. Yes, Ms Clarke.

40 MS CLARKE: Good afternoon Commissioners. My name is Bernadette Clarke and I am a palliative care nurse working in the wider Wellington community. I frequently visit patients in their homes in Kapiti and my work involves a lot of driving in the area we are considering here today. 45

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My family has been connected to the Kapiti Coast since my preschool days when we used to come here for camping holidays from Wellington. I now live in Wellington and have a share in a house in Paraparaumu Beach and spend most of my weekends here. 5 I am against the proposed McKays to Peka Peka expressway. All of us who live, work or holiday on the Kapiti Coast agree something needs to be done about traffic flow, but this proposal is a cumbersome wasteful and destructive response to an incorrectly defined problem. There are 10 two main problems with the traffic flow in Kapiti.

The first is that there is no local road that goes from Raumati South through to Peka Peka and the second is that State Highway One does not meet current traffic requirements. I would like to address each of 15 these issues in turn.

The lack of a connecting road is a key issue. This means all the low traffic going either north or south over the river is forced onto the State Highway. I have a very concrete example. To get from my place in 20 Pinewood Grove in Paraparaumu Beach to my sisters place in Wigari (ph 4.59) Drive, Waikanae Beach I have two options. I can walk or bike the one kilometre in a few minutes or I can drive 19 kilometres on the highway in 24 minutes.

25 [12.25 pm]

The NZTA’s response to this overshoots by several hundred millions dollars, but still does not produce a functional result. I am unlikely to use the so called arterial route since that would mean I would still be 30 driving the 19 kilometres in 24 minutes. I and many others will rationally use the expressway for local trips, but this proposed expressway will only be two lanes in each direction adequate for through traffic which is bypassing Kapiti, but easily overwhelmed with the addition of local traffic. 35 By its very placement right through the centre of the population it is inviting all the local traffic. With the growth projected in the Kapiti region, the brand new expressway will be operating at over capacity many decades before it is paid for. The NZTA proposal does not 40 address this projected growth and population. The NZTA proposal does not address the demographics of the Kapiti population.

Compared to the New Zealand average, Kapiti has about twice the number of people aged 65 or older so relatively few people drive into 45 Wellington for work. I know from working in this area that they are also very active and that living on pensions means they must be

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economical. They will choose to drive the shortest distances to get where they are going. McKays to Peka Peka expressway will have a high proportion of elderly drivers entering and exiting the high speed expressway for their trips around the coast. I believe this will pose a 5 hazard to both the residents of Kapiti and all others on the expressway.

It is illogical to have a local connecting road remote from the population centre and have the expressway steaming right through the heart of it. 10 My second point concerns the existing problems with State Highway One. I hope and trust you have had the chance to drive from McKays Crossing to Peka Peka. BECA in its report noted that it is a relatively uncongested part of the road network. Aside from noticing the 15 magnificent beauty of the area, I think you could also not have helped noting how easy it would seem to be to widen the existing highway to a four lane expressway.

All along the route there is minimal building and community 20 development with the exceptions being at Waikanae and Paraparaumu. So much work has already been done on the road. State Highway One has a further big advantage by being at grade. With future projected growth it could potentially be expanded further to six lanes even if necessary, whereas the proposed expressway raised about the ground 25 will be much less able to be expanded as needed.

It seems so abundantly obvious to those of us who live and work here that for a fraction of the cost and with much less social and community disruption and with minimal further ecological upheaval, a more logical 30 and rational solution is at hand, so the upgrading of the existing state highway.

The NZTA proposed expressway would result in our long narrow coastal area being divided by major roads into three long narrower 35 strips each with restricted access to adjacent strips. Instead of the ongoing evolution of a thriving cohesive community, these restrictions will promote instead a ghetto mentality and increasingly fractured communities.

40 Pity the poor residents living between Poplar Avenue and Otaihanga which is almost half the length of the expressway. They will be sandwiched in no man’s land between the expressway and the current State Highway One and their strip will be less than a kilometre wide. There are already signs that community development are struggling to 45 keep up with population growth.

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For every one of us who loves biking along the river, there are those whose outlet is drunkenness and vandalism unfortunately. Quite frequently letter boxes are kicked over along Guildford Drive and shockingly recently there were two murders of young people within a 5 month in the Coastlands car park. The above ground concrete expressway creating a schism in the landscape will I believe reinforce and resonate with the sense of alienation and will stimulate the graffiti and other antisocial behaviour found under expressways the world over. 10 In its application the NZTA has only considered the plight of the 865 existing dwellings lying within 200 metres of this expressway. For people who came to Kapiti to look out on grazing horses, sand dunes and Kapiti Island, this is a major loss of quality of life aside from the 15 health implications.

[12.30 pm]

But what about those living 250 or 300 metres or 400 metres away? 20 The applicants have not considered them when accounting for those disadvantaged by the expressway. How many of us would live within, say, 500 metres of an expressway and consider our quality of life not to be adversely affected?

25 Kapiti is a narrow strip not much more than five kilometres at widest running between the mountains and the sea and if we take a strip half a kilometre either side of the proposed expressway that makes an area a kilometre wide permanently devalued by this expressway.

30 The huge costs of this project are out of all proportion to the problem trying to be solved. Not even Beca thought it showed much promise. With its $600 million price tag and a benefit cost ration of 0.2 it is a long way short of even breaking even.

35 The objectives of the NZTA reflect only a national perspective but surely it is just and fair to find a solution which also addresses our local needs. I believe common sense is not on their side. We have a state highway well placed for minimal social and environmental disruption. It can be made safe with the addition of a central meridian barrier and 40 is eminently upgradable to a four lane expressway or even wider if needed. Despite its huge cost the NZTA proposal does not provide us with a local road sited locally providing local connectivity nor a national road taking traffic away from the centres of population. It is illogical, we don’t need it and we can’t afford it. Thank you. 45

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CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Thank you very much, you may stand down. Now, look I am sorry, I know you are appreciating the submissions but this is a serious legal hearing and it is not theatre please, just show a little bit of restraint. Mrs Thornton please. Yes, Mrs Thornton. 5 MRS THORNTON: Kia ora everybody. In my opinion an expressway built through Kapiti will be like a taniwha roaring through the community gobbling up peoples peace and quiet, gobbling up their wellbeing, gobbling up their financial status, houses won’t sell near an 10 expressway. Gobbling up their services as Melt restaurant and the Waikanae Market Gardens at Te Moana Road will be destroyed among other businesses in the district by the taniwha. These are all negative impacts on the community.

15 My name is Jocelyn Thornton, I’m in my 80s and I have lived on the Kapiti Coast for 29 years, 27 of this in Paekakariki with State Highway 1 is an awful problem and we were given seven choices and everybody saw the wisdom of traffic lights and when we said, “Yes, please” Transit, I think it was then, turned us down and said, “No”. I 20 cannot understand them, their ethics are wonky.

While I was in Paekakariki I supported Nga Uruora an organisation with a splendid vision of planting the steep escarpment between Paekakariki and Pukerua Bay with native bush. I worked in the nursery 25 at Paekakariki School germinating and potting native seedlings and helping to plant them out on the escarpment. Now we live in Nimmo Avenue West Waikanae I support the Waikanae River Group which plants native seedlings along the Waikanae River.

30 Though not right on the path of the expressway I think I would be approximately one kilometre away as the crow flies. I am troubled at the thought of traffic fumes being blown over our place and polluting my organic garden. Organic vegetable gardening is my bliss.

35 [12.35 pm]

But more worrying still is the likelihood of traffic noise. I understand the expressway may be up to nine metres high. This will have the effect of increasing noise by dispersing it over a large area. I don’t see 40 how there can be anyway of mitigating noise from such a high structure.

When on holiday on the East Coast recently I saw an arresting notice, “Truckies no engine brakes please, retain the tranquillity of our 45 communities”. What a splendid notice, “retain the tranquillity of our communities”. Lucky that community.

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To bring a four lane expressway through an established residential area is downright insensitive. World health guidelines stipulate 30 decibels to be able to sleep. Truck traffic generates 90 decibels. Will there be a 5 ban on trucks travelling at night? No, of course not. Goodbye tranquillity.

The noise the expressway will create will be disturbing and for some people unbearable. When a disturbing noise is beyond ones control it 10 is like a nightmare, it can’t be turned off no matter how upsetting it is. This is an acceptable way to treat citizens especially when there is an alternative. What we need is a local road to carry local traffic with a bridge over the Waikanae River, a road such as Chris Glover was describing and we need national traffic to be directed to South 15 Highway 1 where it belongs and the taniwha won’t be a problem there.

What value do we put on the welfare of human beings? What value do we put on transport? I suggest that human beings have the highest value, far greater than that of any vehicle or road therefore the welfare 20 of human beings must come first. With wiser planning than we are seeing in this proposal I believe both human welfare and the needs of transport can be encompassed.

This is in the nature of an addendum. The Environmental Report 25 Summary says that the introduction of the proposed expressway, which is generally a currently low noise environment, will result in a significant increase in noise level. This will transform much of Kapiti into a high noise area. It brings a large scale construction project to our area where the overall ambient noise levels along the proposed 30 expressway alignment are relatively low due to the absence of major roads or industry in the area. The noise level change due to the project is predicted to be considerable in some areas with increases ranging for most affected dwellings from 10 to 21 decibels.

35 Please note that a 10 decibel increase is 10 fold with the sound level doubling for the receiver, the sound level doubling. That’s the people hearing it. But a 20 decibel increase is 20 fold so that the sound experienced is four times greater than the existing one. Then add Lmax noise peaks which are typically 75 to 80 decibels for busy urban 40 arterials according to New Zealand Transport Agency. A motorway will be even more. Then remember the World Health Organisation says children are 10 to 15 decibels more sensitive than adults so add the multiple increases on top of these figures.

45 [12.40 pm]

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The noise assessment Western Bay of Plenty says, “It is generally accepted in New Zealand that an internal night noise of 30 decibels to prevent sleep disturbance is required for dwellings adjacent to roads with high traffic flows” from the World Health Organisation. 5 But (and this is what Transit says), “Transit notes that while it recommends 30 decibels as the satisfactory internal levels for bedrooms such standards may be technically difficult and costly to achieve in high noise areas.” 10 Therefore propose an internal design of 35 decibels dBA acceptable as properties adjacent to these highways. Transit is setting its own rules and not going by medically researched health studies from the WHO. Our area will be predominantly low noise no more. 15 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mrs Thornton.

MRS THORNTON: I have here something from my daughter which I would like to read you. 20 CHAIRPERSON: By all means.

MRS THORNTON: Is that all right?

25 CHAIRPERSON: Yes, of course.

MRS THORNTON: Vibration measures from 20 hertz down to one hertz. The dBA measures from at least 200 hertz and up and cannot record low frequency. In the report there were no figures for the gap of low 30 frequency noise levels. Why not?

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.

MRS THORNTON: Thank you very much. It is good to be heard. 35 CHAIRPERSON: Ms Whibley?

MS WHIBLEY: Good afternoon members of the Board. This oral submission expands on the information in my original written submission. It also 40 includes observations in response to hearing and reading evidence from other submitters and experts.

I have also taken the opportunity offered by the Board to consider the Kapiti Coast District Plan and where possible have attempted to make 45 relevant links in this oral submission. It was no mean feat because if

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you have seen the size of the District Plan it takes a bit of navigating, so I have done my best.

I would like to begin with a brief overview of who I am and where I 5 live to give you some background into why I made my original submission and why I am now following up with this oral representation. Following that I plan to cover the points made in my written submission in more detail and include points to be considered in the context of the Kapiti Coast District Plan. I will finish with my 10 thoughts on mitigation should the Board consent to the NZTA proposal.

I have also attached two pages of photographs which I hope will provide some context to this submission and give the Board a sense of where my submission fits in the overall scheme of this expressway 15 proposal.

My name is Karen Whibley, I live at 22 Makarini Street in Paraparaumu with my husband. Our home is approximately 135 metres from the eastern boundary of the proposed expressway. 20 The first photograph you see is the view looking from our street boundary (that is my front gate) down Eldergrove to the sand hills. To the left you can see the mature gum trees that border the proposed expressway designation and the park in Makarini Street. 25 We came to live here in 1975 with our two young children when the street was first developed into residential properties. We moved in around the same time as a number of other young families into houses provided through a Housing Corp ballot of modest, affordable houses 30 and sections. A number of houses were available as Housing Corporation rentals and while some of these have since been sold to tenants others have been retained for rental.

Originally the street stopped where Cypress Grove now intersects and 35 there was no road connection from Arawhata through to Paraparaumu Beach. Rimu Road (ph 4.36) stopped at Coastlands. Trips to any of the other local villages where made by travelling down Kapiti Road to the beach and then to Raumati and further south, or alternatively by setting out along State Highway 1 and into Raumati Road or Poplar 40 Avenue.

Over time road connections have made the other parts of the district more accessible. The addition of a bus service, pedestrian walkways and cycleways means that once separate communities are much more 45 connected than before.

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[12.45 pm]

The one outstanding link yet to be made is an additional road along the Waikanae River. This has long been held necessary by Kapiti residents. 5 The pedestrian bridges, especially the long standing one at Otaihanga are very well used.

We have now both retired for many years in Wellington and making the daily commute by train – my husband for 35 years and me for 10 relatively shorter 14 years. In retirement I vowed to reconnect with the community I had left behind every day for those 14 years, to enjoy the coastal lifestyle with an emphasis on gardening, drawing and painting, walking and cycling, and to spend more time with family and in particular two young grandchildren. 15 I now have the luxury of time to consider how Paraparaumu had developed over 37 years of living here and to reflect on how it may continue to develop and what that could look like in another 37 years time. 20 Those supporting the NZTA proposal in full may contend that because we have continued to live in the presence of a sand hills motorway designation for so long we have no right to now object to NZTA’s most recent proposal. Although I have from time to time pondered living the 25 good life on a rural, self sustained lifestyle block that is not the reality for me and is no more than a romantic notion of something unattainable and impracticable.

I live within a town boundary and am quite happy to continue living 30 here as that town grows. The town centre and railway station are all within easy walk. I like being part of a vibrant community, sometimes a little unruly and noisy and maybe a little rough around the edges.

I enjoy talking to neighbours and to those walking down my street. I 35 like to see the young children walking to and from school each day while playing in the afternoons and long summer evenings, teenagers mooching past in shambling groups, commuters making the daily walk down to the station in the morning and home in the evening, people waling their dogs and setting off all the other dogs down the street. 40 Over the years we have developed the garden and built several outdoor living areas to take advantage of the sun, shade and shelter. We spend a lot of time outside and at this time of the year are likely to have breakfast, lunch and dinner outside. We enjoy family gatherings and 45 have had many Christmas and New Year family lunches outside in the shade under the pergola or under the marquee on the back lawn. There

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have been barbecues on the back deck and a wedding in our back garden.

Our grandchildren now enjoy visiting and playing in the garden and we 5 have swings for them both. A few years ago I built a little shed where I can draw and paint and my husband has his own hobby room on the side of the garage.

This town is often noisy. We hear the trains coming through on still 10 mornings, the trucks breaking as they come through the lights at Kapiti Road, sirens from Police, Fire and Ambulance, the various sounds of the industrial area behind the sand hill and the operational noises of the airport. When considering the NZTA application I wonder how much more noise a community should live with. 15 We have not moved away from Makarini Street because we like it here and we have made our life here. We have every expectation of continuing to live here. The road designation corridor, sand hills, motorway originally and now Western Link Road has been here slightly 20 longer than we have. I am not naïve enough to believe that the sand hills would forever remain an overlooked blackberry covered scrubby bit of land but I have had time enough to consider what the various designations might look like and how those of us living in the immediate vicinity would be affected and what this may mean for on- 25 going development in the future of this town.

My second photo is taken from the top of the sand hill looking back down towards our house, and that house is on where it intersects with Eldergrove and the little pedestrian accessway next door, and the hills 30 that make the natural boundary of the township of Paraparaumu.

You can see the residential area and to the far right the town centre development. In this area are the new Council buildings, the library and the under construction aquatic centre. This is possibly the new that 35 through traffic will have as a town as they drive over the interchange on Kapiti Road.

When responding to a proposed project of this scale it is difficult to know where to start. After reading and hearing other submitters and 40 various experts I have decided to focus on what I can contribute from my own viewpoint. I cannot speak for others. I am not an expert in any technical sense and while I have views about the merit or otherwise of the whole project I can only usefully focus on that which I will experience on a day to day basis and how decisions made today will 45 impact on future communities.

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When I try to classify the concerns I have I return to the overall challenge of social impact. From the initial consultation and through the various NZTA expos I have grappled with how to ensure that the residents of the Coast, and particularly those within the Paraparaumu 5 town boundary, can be assured of a good standard of living.

I was surprised to read that the Makarini Street and environs is described an area requiring special consideration because of high deprivation evaluation. What has focused me more intently as a 10 consequence is that given this social evaluation there has been no apparent direct contact with our community by either NZTA or KCDC.

In the absence of any social monitoring historically it is difficult to envisage what may be achieved for residents by monitoring once the 15 road is under construction or indeed the years that follow.

[12.50 pm]

There is no doubt that this neighbourhood when compared to others on 20 the Coast can be considered of a lower socioeconomic status and our property values reflect this. Over the years many of the original families have moved on. There has been a considerable about of infill development and the area has attracted a number of landlords.

25 The Kapiti Coast District Plan identifies this area for focused infill and this area becomes more densely populated, it is even more important that good urban design contributes to the health, safety and social wellbeing of its communities. The effect of an expressway and an interchange in close proximity to such an area seems unable to be 30 quantified via any of our experts.

The willingness of NZTA to place an expressway in such a location seems almost careless. The evidence of Julie Meade Rose that the overall net social effect will be positive shows almost wanted disregard 35 for our community. Whilst stating that ongoing health effects associated with vehicle emissions are likely to be an ongoing concern, especially for those in the adjacent areas, she then reflects that community health will benefit from amongst other things the leisure opportunities of the new pedestrian cycleway and bridle way. 40 I struggle to see how this can be a benefit when we can expect high pollutant concentrations around our homes and then use the pathways adjacent to the expressway for leisure. In reading the evidence of Ms Meade Rose and that of Mary-Jane Rivers for KCDC, I agree with Ms 45 Rivers that there is currently insufficient evidence to provide a

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thorough assessment of social effects. I agree that this work needs to be done.

Ms Meade Rose contends that a few Makarini Street residents will 5 suffer a loss of visual amenity. I think she overlooks the point that the view of Kapiti Island is not the only visual amenity we enjoy. Many of us look towards the sand hills as a dominating feature of our street. From my lounge window I enjoy watching the fight of the Harrier Hawke as it flies across the hills. I look to the mature trees in the park 10 and hear the Tui calling across the neighbourhood to each other. I watch the Starlings gather in the top of the trees at dusk and swirl away together to their high roosts at night.

I will miss all of that. I do not look forward to seeing an interchange 15 rising in the western sky to a height I cannot begin to imagine. Neither do I look forward to seeing the heavy traffic movement across the landscape. While I may live in an area where property values are not as high as in other areas, it does not necessarily follow that I should live a somewhat budget lifestyle. Ms Meade Rose is undoubtedly 20 correct when she says that we will probably get used to the expressway over time.

My question to the Board is where the assessments that gives me comfort that my new life adjacent to an expressway is one that will 25 ensure the community is strengthened by its presence and that my overall wellbeing is not compromised.

It is incongruous that to achieve an overall net positive outcome, the most densely populated and to all accounts at least able to represent 30 itself sector of the community must in essence suck it up and get on with it.

One area of social impact that requires further consideration relates to urban design and planning. The Kapiti District Plan includes a district 35 centre plan that traverses the area from the new council buildings up to the road designation. Should the interchange encourage big box retail development on any of the quadrants, this would eventually negatively impact the development of the town centre and ultimately on residents.

40 Development in one quadrant would eventually over time attract further development on all of the others. This would inevitably impact on Greenwood Place, Makarini Street and on Milne Drive. I do not support any submitter wishing to exploit the land around the interchange for commercial or industrial use. 45

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Before we get to our future life alongside an operational expressway, there will be a period of construction. There are a number of points I wish to raise concerning the construction period. The first relates to vibration. Housing in Makarini Street is built on compacted sand on 5 top of peat swamp. Heavy traffic on Makarini Street and Arawhata Road currently cause some vibration. This is more pronounced on outdoor areas away from the compacted sand.

Construction especially around structures like interchange this is likely 10 to be felt in houses adjacent to the work. I am not qualified to suggest what mitigation may be appropriate, but it would be disappointing to think that residents experiencing adverse effects of vibration on their properties would need to get involved in litigation to have this remedied. Better to put agreed processes in place before the event. 15 This might mean some kind of engineering report required on adjacent properties.

The next point I raise is noise. There will be increased noise. It will come from machinery working along the designation and on the 20 interchange. There will also be increased noises if Arawhata Road becomes a bypass when work at Kapiti Road closes that section. During construction working hours must be restricted to ensure we residents can enjoy quieter times. This is particularly important at night and at the weekends. Many of our residents work away from the 25 district during the day. Evenings and weekends are times for relaxation and recreation.

[12.55 pm]

30 I also have concerns relating to dust. The public health experts have debated air quality. There is no doubt that pollutants will increase. However, during the construction period there will be times when. because of high seasonal winds, sand and dust will inevitably sweep into our properties. When Makarini Street was first developed there 35 were several years when sand blew in under doors and windows. Until lawns and gardens were well established there was no point in installing carpets even if we had the money to do so.

The recent development at the airport is an example of what happens 40 when large areas of sand are exposed. High winds in spring saw sand blowing in all directions. Water trucks were in operation constantly to minimum effect. We do live in a high wind area and the westerly winds are particularly blustery and strong.

45 My final point is about traffic and traffic management. During construction those of us living in the triangle bounded by the

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designation, the Kapiti Road and Arawhata, Mazengarb Roads run the risk of being land locked. When work is underway on either the Kapiti Road interchange or the Mazengarb overpass, traffic will be diverted away from those areas. Arawhata Road is already a heavy traffic route. 5 It will become more so and I expect the amount of freight as well as private and commercial vehicles to increase. Access in and out by car may become difficult especially during rush hours.

I note that the Kapiti District Plan has marked Arawhata Road for 10 future removal as a freight route. I agree that this road should be a local road, it flows through a high population residential area and should never be used as a freight route or for heavy traffic. I agree with the plan where it attributes the movement of large numbers of heavy vehicles through residential areas to damaging infrastructure, noise and 15 amenity impacts. It also means that this road is potentially unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists and unpleasant to use.

Kapiti Road is a current example of a local road bordering on being unfit for cyclists and pedestrians. It is unpleasant to use and difficult to 20 cross unless at the lights at either end. I have no confidence that an expressway and the interchange will remedy this problem. With State Highway 1 traffic moved further into Paraparaumu it is more likely to exacerbate traffic volumes.

25 NZTA’s Social Impact Report points out that many in this area are already transport disadvantaged. This is because of the high numbers of children as well as though who do not drive for a variety of reasons. Children walking to school already face crossing an increasingly busy Arawhata Road. I walk down to Coastlands once or twice a week and 30 cross Arawhata regularly on morning walks. With no marked pedestrian crossing points on this road it does, at times, become very difficult to cross safely. As a matter of some urgency and priority safe crossing points must be made to ensure pedestrian access to the rest of the township. 35 On Kapiti Road crossing points around the interchange area must also be implemented. It will not be enough for a footpath to be closed on one side of the road with a sign pointing to the opposite side to continue a journey. 40 Many residents use the informal path between Makarini Street and Te Roto Drive and that’s photo 3 to access work, shops, polytech and for recreation. This path has been in constant use for the 37 years we have lived here. It is a safe and quick access and must be maintained. 45 The photo is taken from the middle of the proposed expressway

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designation and shows the mature gum trees that bound the park and that are currently the habitat for large numbers of tui.

Others will speak about walkways and cycleways and their design. As 5 a regular user of a large number of these I am interested in ensuring connections can be made in, around and over the proposed expressway in a safe and pleasant manner. Some of us walk and cycle for necessity, others for health and recreation. Not enough consideration has been given to crossing under the interchange or over the on/off 10 lanes. Many of us use the informal Makarini Street park access to avoid the noise and business of Kapiti Road. Closing this access will mean we will need to go out to Kapiti Road and then over and under the various road configurations around the interchange. I have no confidence that cycle lanes will continue at these busy intersections. 15 Current road marking practice is that cycle lanes simply disappear when the challenges become too great.

There is a possibility of an overbridge to join Makarini Street with a walkway cycleway that will be built alongside the proposed 20 expressway. In principle this sounds like a good idea. In practice this could end up being visually intrusive and possibly unsafe. I have not seen any designs of what this may look like but unless sympathetically constructed it would be difficult to live alongside and, depending on gradient and height, may be even more daunting to cross. 25 There is a risk that not only will residents along the designation have an expressway on their boundaries but some may also have an overbridge looking into their private living areas. Residents may also feel unsafe living in close proximity of the bridge and in its use. 30 [1.00 pm]

I agree with Ian Munro’s points in ensuring that pedestrian overbridges meet community requirements and that the Council should be actively 35 involved in the design process.

My final photograph is my front gate – you are welcome in any time you are passing. If you look beyond the gate you can see the beginning of one of our landscaped outdoor areas. I just wanted to give you these 40 photos to give you a sense of where I am and what I am about.

I oppose the NZTA application in full. I believe that there is a better, more sustainable alternative. The Western Link Road would solve Kapiti roading problems, connect coastal communities and keep local 45 traffic off State Highway 1. However should the Board grant NZTA’s

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submission then there are a number of points I would ask you to consider in terms of mitigation.

The first one is a full social impact assessment for Makarini Street and 5 environs is taken as a matter of some priority. Secondly, meaningful communication and liaison with the community is initiated and maintained. Any communication plan should ensure that residents in the most affected areas are well informed and have real opportunities to participate in any processes and liaison groups. 10 Consultation to date has been meaningless and confusing. The residents in my area are overdue for respectful consultation and real opportunity to participate in any groups formed to consider construction, communication and liaison planning. 15 Thirdly, the traffic management plan during construction includes safe crossing points for pedestrians crossing Arawhata Road and Kapiti Road. This means not only at Arawhata/Kapiti Road intersection but also along Arawhata Road at natural crossing points for residents. 20 Fourthly, the link between Makarini Street and Te Roto Drive is maintained and is eventually replaced with a safe at level pathway.

Five, the mature trees in the Makarini Street Park are retained and this 25 area is enhanced with more planting. The trees are a habitat for large numbers of tui and these should not be disturbed. Removal of the trees will destroy a visual amenity unable to be replaced in the short term.

Six, concrete noise barriers around the interchange are constructed as 30 aesthetically as possible and to ensure the least risk of vandalism and graffiti. Pedestrian access between concrete noise barriers and residential properties must be large enough and sympathetically designed not to put private residences at risk of anti social behaviour by some users. 35 My seventh point – dust from the construction site is minimised, not just during working hours but 24/7 when needed because of wind conditions.

40 My eighth point – an overbridge to link pedestrians and cyclists from Makarini Street across the expressway is designed to be visually attractive, safe and not to overlook adjacent homes and outdoor living areas. The Kapiti Coast District Council and residents should be actively involved in this planning. 45

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And finally the Kapiti Road interchange remains free of any commercial industrial development. The wetland designation in the south east quadrant should be retained.

5 In conclusion, given the time, budget and resources a well designed functional expressway with interchanges and overbridges could possibly be designed along this expressway designation. It may even benefit some motorists travelling through our community. However I am not the least confident that this would have any particular benefit 10 for the communities alongside the designation or that we would think in 10 or 20 years time that the nett social benefit was indeed positive for Paraparaumu.

Finally I think the Board for the opportunity to speak to my submission 15 and I wish you well in your deliberations.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Could I ask a couple of questions? 20 MS WHIBLEY: Yes, certainly.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: What do you see the benefit of the social impact assessment being? 25 MS WHIBLEY: Well I think given that there has been none to day it is difficult to quantify.

All of the social impact experts have said that there is a need to 30 something particular for Makarini Street and that there are some requirements in terms of social impact that I think we need to get on with a starting point. And probably the first point is to do this as thoroughly as possible, we then at least have a place for monitoring or to look at what may happen. 35 The demographics of the area have changed considerably in the 37 years we have lived there and I am not sure what those demographics will look like in another 37 years time as the focus infill happens and people move and change. I mean who - - - 40 CHAIRPERSON: I do not think anyone can estimate that.

MS WHIBLEY: I do not have a crystal ball and neither do you but I think it is a starting point and I think if there is something missing in all the 45 planning both in terms of the expressway and in terms of the Kapiti

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Coast District Plan then both should actually understand its residence and why they function and what will benefit them.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: It just that you seemed to indicate that you 5 were not quite sure whether it was - - -

MS WHIBLEY: Well - - -

[1.05 pm] 10 COMMISSIONER BUNTING: I mean how did KAT (ph 5.04) come to get this label?

MS WHIBLEY: Well I was surprised that I was thought of as sort of 15 somehow - - -

CHAIRPERSON: Well it came from Ms Rivers, who was the witness for the KCDC.

20 MS WHIBLEY: Absolutely.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes.

MS WHIBLEY: I’ve never thought of myself as socially deprived. I can 25 understand how using the data from Statistics you can make that point in terms of ownership, the numbers of people with small children, people with disabilities, people on fixed incomes, so I understand all of that. Given that it seems to be a community that’s completely been overlooked in terms of development it’s a point I think made, and it’s a 30 point I’ll be making in my submission to the Kapiti Coast in terms of its district planning as well.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Okay, thanks for that. Some of the things you’ve been looking for, you know, conditions if the thing does go 35 ahead, as we – I think, the Chair said to someone earlier, some of these things have been picked up on already - - -

MS WHIBLEY: I understand.

40 COMMISSIONER BUNTING: - - - and I don’t know if you’re aware of that. The conditions are sort of being developed as we go along. The other suggestion was to talk to the friend of submitter, I don’t know if you’ve been - - -

45 MS WHIBLEY: I haven’t talked to the friend of submission about that, but I wanted to reinforce those – I had looked through some of the planning

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documents and I just wanted to reinforce from a person on the ground that those conditions were things that should be in there.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: So he’s sitting down the back there, so - - - 5 MS WHIBLEY: I’ll talk to him more about that.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: It may well have been too - - - CHAIRPERSON: I think the main point of it would be to get access to the 10 planning advisor to the Board, Mr Kyle, who’s been working quite closely with all of the planners to liaise around these conditions.

MS WHIBLEY: Right.

15 CHAIRPERSON: You would have heard, for example, during the social impact evidence a discussion that – cross-examination and questions from the Board around making sure that there was a liaison person for the community, and there was some teeth around those sorts provisions.

20 MS WHIBLEY: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: So – and I think there’s a fine alliteration due next week and it will probably be appropriate to wait for that, but you might find it useful to discuss that with Mr Kyle if you have the opportunity also. 25 MS WHIBLEY: Thanks you, I’ll do that. Thank you very much.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: That’s all thank you, sir.

30 MR APELDOORN: I’m just interested in the standing a bit more clearly where the existing link is between Makarene [ph 02.20] Street and Toroto [ph 02.23] Drive?

MS WHIBLEY: If you – the section between Agrema [ph 02.28] Place and 35 Elder Grove – I don’t know if you’ve got a map there?

MR APELDOORN: Yes.

MS WHIBLEY: There is a park, - - - 40 MR APELDOORN: Oh, yes.

MS WHIBLEY: - - - a big green area with the – a reasonably overlooked park, but it’s through that park there. With the photographs that I took 45 this probably from about the middle of the designation looking back towards Makarene [ph] Street and through the park.

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MR APELDOORN: And does that from there you then would turn right effectively and wander across to the large open area, is that right, on the other side, on Toroto [ph] Drive? 5 MS WHIBLEY: Toroto [ph] Drive, you come and turn and the street sign is down so I can never remember if it’s Birmingham, Sheffield or Manchester, it’s one of those industrial - - -

10 MR APELDOORN: Sheffield, so it goes through the industrial area?

MS WHIBLEY: It comes through the back there. There is a mechanics or something, I mean it’s a very informal path but used a lot.

15 MR APELDOORN: So in order to establish that connection, that would involve a passageway over private land presumably, on the industrial side?

MS WHIBLEY: Well that’s what it has been for the last 37 years and there’s 20 never been denied access, so you know, - - -

MR APELDOORN: Squatters’ rights?

MS WHIBLEY: Absolutely, yeah. 25 MR APELDOORN: Thank you very much.

MS WHIBLEY: We say hello to them as we come through, yeah.

30 MR APELDOORN: Thank you.

MS WHIBLEY: Thank you very much.

CHAIRPERSON: Well thank you very much for your considered views that 35 you’ve expressed to us. Now Mr Ternent from the Kapiti Coast Chamber of Commerce.

MR TERNENT: Good afternoon.

40 CHAIRPERSON: Good afternoon.

MR TERNENT: I’ll stand if I might, having been sitting for a while.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes, whatever suits you. 45

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MR TERNENT: Thank you very much for the opportunity to address, and I think I’m just here to verbalise some of the issues and points raised in the Kapiti Chamber of Commerce’s submission, which of course you have in front of you. I’m going to summarise some things, maybe read 5 one or two paragraphs verbatim, but basically just do some bullet points.

There’s four sort of main points that come up in this. The first is that there’s positives for the expressway, and there’s also negatives. But of 10 course the decision rests on the balance and it’s our view that the balance is in favour of it. It’s the least disruptive route available. Most people either don’t object once they know the pros and cons, or actively in favour of it, and it needs to be done now. Those are perhaps the four points that come out of what I’m about to say. 15 [1.10 pm]

The Kapiti Chamber of Commerce is an all volunteer body representing some 270 members in Kapiti and we found over the last three years that 20 there’s a near unanimous agreement amongst our membership, and we also believe in a much wider segment of the community on this issue. What we are saying is that the expressway will on balance be overwhelmingly positive for the Kapiti district and the Wellington region, and that work to build it should be started as soon as possible. 25 Further, we submit that effected people should be dealt with fairly and promptly, and that the Board should make instructions regarding environmental impact and the mitigation of those things in their findings, so long as these things do not delay the start of the 30 expressway construction.

By way of background, the Kapiti district has seen above average growth for many decades now, and if you look at the plan of the district, and it really struck me when I visited the Coastlands Arcade 35 and they had the map all laid out from NZTA. Kapiti was designed to have an expressway going through it, and that map quite clearly shows it because there’s a corridor that’s been left. Sure the designation changed some 10 years ago, but I know that many of the suburbs around that were designed with the intention that an expressway or a 40 motorway would go through at one day.

And part of the issue is the simple fact that Kapiti sits on a narrow strip of coastal land to the north of New Zealand’s capital city, and which provides the better of only two routes by road in and out of that city, 45 and this is State Highway 1, the other of course being the route over the top of the Rimutaka.

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Thus it’s critical to the region for the efficient movement of both freight and people, and also offering choices in the event of a significant emergency or natural disaster in the Wellington region, and 5 Wellington of course is acknowledged as New Zealand’s most at risk city, that this proceeds. The road is currently both dangerous and busy and it’s forecast just to get busier, and yet as we’ve heard already since I’ve been sitting here, it’s not designed for modern traffic volumes or speeds, and of course there are far too many injuries, crashes and 10 deaths.

State Highway 1 is frequently blocked due to accidents and high traffic volumes on holiday weekends, and the like. The current road is inhibiting job growth in Kapiti where there is a high demand for work 15 because of population growth, and for all of the preceding reasons and a few more, it’s clearly unsustainable as it is.

Unlike Otaki and Levin to the north, there is no viable, unfortunately, way of bypassing Kapiti, and thus a road has to go through somewhere, 20 and this route has been identified after three years of extensive consultation in the NZTA proposal. Upgrading the current highway to the needed standards would result in far more cost, financial and social, than using the planned Sandhills route.

25 The majority of the planned new route was of course allowed for many decades ago in the planning and growth of Kapiti. Personally when this first came out a few years ago it seemed obvious to me that you’d upgrade State Highway 1, and it was only after several months that I came to the conclusion, as more information became available, that that 30 would cause far more destruction than using the Sandhills route – I’ll come back to that.

Our communities have been beset and frustrated by indecision on this matter for 50 odd years, and it is now time, with respect, that a decision 35 was made, the road needs to be built now. Together with the Transmission Gully section, it is a strategic piece of infrastructure for New Zealand and the Wellington region. The majority of the people in Kapiti and likely Wellington, which the road will also serve, would benefit from the Transmission Gully section of the expressway being 40 extended through Kapiti.

Construction of the expressway will have its negatives, of course, and these are not desirable. However it is the contention of the Kapiti Chamber of Commerce that on balance, taking into account the ability 45 to mitigate many of the negatives and cognisant of the lack of any real

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alternatives which meet the needs, that the construction of the expressway needs to happen as soon as possible.

[1.15 pm] 5 I make in this submission a number of fairly short points about health and safety and the danger of the current State Highway 1, and I’m sure every Kapiti Coaster has a personal story to tell. A friend of mine lost her daughter on that just more than 12 months ago. Other people I 10 know don’t let their kids drive on that road because it is so dangerous, and certainly even from the people here today there’s no real doubt in the Kapiti community that we need the second bridge. It’s really just a case of how that happens of course.

15 But I want to make the point that the current State Highway 1 is very dangerous and the only alternative that we’ve been presented with is this expressway or not at this particular junction. The use of the State Highway as an 80 kilometre an hour road to connect the town centres, or the village centres of Kapiti will be good. It would not in some ways 20 be as good as having the central deviation, but again it comes down to the cost and disruption of developing the current State Highway 1, if it were to be updated sufficiently.

Congestion is an issue. Anyone who’s travelled north of Kapiti on a 25 weekend knows this. State Highway 1 is often blocked and when it is blocked there is no alternative route often, so again, justifying that second route. People have made reference to the distance between Paraparaumu Beach and Waikanae Beach in particular, it’s a fact of geography. Our fire station is located on Toroto [ph 02.02] Drive and 30 its ability to respond to emergencies down in Waikanae Beach would be a lot shorter, with a 100 kilometre an hour expressway going through the deviation as proposed.

Likewise with service vehicles, plumbers, builders – especially 35 plumbers, everyday type people, they have to travel a lot further. The benefit for that is not to the business owner, the benefit for that normally is through increased competition is directly in costs to the householder, because in business if costs are incurred they eventually pass through to the consumer, and so by reducing that distance there 40 will be cost savings that pass through. Maybe not anything that anyone will notice, but it will happen.

In summary for that particular section we want to get through traffic off our roads and make them safer. 45

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Turning now to jobs and development, we believe that the expressway will have a considerable impetus to the development of the Kapiti economy and the growth of jobs in our district. We’re already anecdotally aware of businesses looking to relocate to the area, or start 5 here, that have put their decisions on hold, partly pending this Board’s decision, and the whole NZTA process we’ve just been through, and partly pending the question of whether and when the communication links to Kapiti are upgraded.

10 And I’m not talking so much about the village centres here as one of the previous speakers has alluded to, I’m talking more about businesses that have an ability to create reasonable employment. We have fledgling businesses in the district who are selling and developing their wears, especially services, for distribution around the world, and one of 15 the things that attracts them to Kapiti is of course the lifestyle, and the fact that you don’t need to be in a city anymore like you used to be for these sorts of businesses.

But nevertheless, having the communications and the ability to drive 20 down to Wellington without having to fear time delays is a positive for them.

I need to mention two business parks that are going on here. We’ve got the Kapiti airport development, considerable sums of money there have 25 been put into developing it, and while it’s a big box at the moment we will still continue to push for it to also incorporate other businesses, and that is the intention of the Airport Companies, I’m sure you’re aware.

30 And the Clean Technology Centre in Otaki, the Clean Technology Centre is a gutsy development in the Wellington region with national and international opportunities to develop clean technologies, which is partly where the world’s going, and we can do it here from Kapiti, and this road through Kapiti will assist. 35 [1.20 pm]

The Transmission Gully gets them to Poplar Ave, but then a part of the problem they’re having is that people don’t want to come up here. 40 The expressway of course allows for increased effectiveness of the already approved Transmission Gully section of the expressway. What we don’t want to have is Transmission Gully traffic popping out at Poplar Ave and getting stuck on our roads, and it’s together with the 45 Transmission Gully section and a bigger regional picture that the cost benefit really stacks up.

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The expressway will reduce commute times, and that will be a few minutes and there are a substantial number of people in Kapiti who commute by car to Wellington. It’s great to see the rail service has 5 improved but there’s a lot of people who can’t commute by rail by virtue of where they live or where their employment is, or they need to travel round during the day, there are a substantial number of commuters. And likewise it gives people a better opportunity to commute to Kapiti, if people base their businesses out here. 10 Overall Kapiti has a population of nearly 50,000 and while population growth has slowed in the last couple of years, it will continue to grow and it won’t be that much longer before we’ll overtake Porirua, and because of the economic potential that the working people in this 15 district have to offer the greater Wellington of the national economic scene, we need to be better connected into the Wellington region to help that to happen.

Of course it also allows people better options when it comes to using 20 the Kapiti airport, which is a regional asset. Wellington was fogged in for several days the other week. I wasn’t flying to Auckland but if I was I’d certainly be thankful if I was flying from Kapiti, because Kapiti wasn’t fogged in, and we know that taking pressure off, not just Wellington airport, but also the routes through central Wellington is 25 quite important, and if we can take cars off the road, or help Porirua people to see that there’s a benefit from just flying from Kapiti, then that is a regional benefit.

The expressway, we believe, will aid the efficiency and the distribution 30 of goods and services throughout the north island, especially the lower north island and this western side of it, and it gives improved opportunities for businesses that serve the western lower north island to be based in a strategically central location such as Kapiti, where as long as the business doesn’t have to be too close to its customer base it can 35 support people all the way around the Wellington region, the Hutt Valley, and up into the Manawatu. And this isn’t about me personally, but I have a very small business with half a dozen employees and that’s what we do.

40 Another issue that comes up is in the internal issues around Kapiti. We’ve mentioned the very strong support for second bridge across the Waikanae River. There’s also very strong support in Kapiti for the containing of rates increases, and as been pointed out we have a substantial number of people over the age of 65, in fact we have twice 45 the national average, which is about 26 percent of our population of over the age of 65, and of the others work is hard to come by, and so

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there is a lot of people on fixed incomes. And the point I’m building up to is if this expressway doesn’t go ahead, and we don’t get the second bridge, then who’s going to pay for whatever comes after?

5 Cos the western link road proposal as put forward by Council relied on about 90 percent, if I understand correctly, NZTA funding, with some $15 to $20 million being paid for only by local ratepayers. I’m not an expert on these things but if you look at the spending of the Kapiti Council, and the infrastructure investments that they’re making at the 10 moment, and they’re already committed to, how long would it be before they could actually fund that second bridge if they had to do it themselves?

And finally on the internal Kapiti section, over the years the Kapiti 15 community has collectively expressed a desire for, and I quote, “increased local employment options”. That’s been something that came through quite strongly in the choosing outcomes, that our Council won awards for doing about 10 years ago, and it’s something that a lot of people here want. 20 A lack of valid alternatives, there aren’t really as far as I’m aware, or we’re aware any valid alternatives that we’re considering. It comes down to is this approved, and you would know better than me with respect because it’s what you do, but is this approved or is it not 25 approved, and either way what are the conditions and instructions that you choose to attach to that.

[1.25 pm]

30 So it’s not like we’re debating three or four options, we’ve been doing that for the last three years and we now have in front of us NZTA’s proposal, which is the thing that those experts have put to us to consider.

35 But the construction or the design of a suitable road to handle the volumes of traffic outside of the deviation that is proposed, it is hard to imagine where they would do that without actually impinging and affecting far more people than are affected directly or even indirectly under this, and this is not to say that there is no effect, because I fully 40 acknowledge there is a huge effect from this road. However, where’s it going to go, and there’s going to be greater effect if it goes elsewhere. Hundreds of properties destroys, and from three years ago the Council was looking at 400+ properties affected, whereas this is sub one hundred. 45

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In terms of the building of it, yes, it will cause disruption, however, there is significantly less disruption in many respects from building on a clear deviation that is already left predominantly vacant for the majority of its route than there is in trying to upgrade a current State 5 Highway, especially State Highway One at the Kapiti bottleneck to an expressway standard, or even some alternative to the expressway standard.

So the people at Kapiti, if it was not to go ahead and they were to start 10 upgrading State Highway One, would face years and years and years of extensive road works on their current road, and they’ve probably still got to build something down the other deviation anyway.

In building, that means that they don’t have to allow, to the same 15 extent, for the need to accommodate ongoing State Highway One traffic while they’re doing the building, which means they’ve still got to keep the road open, because of course they can just build it on a closed deviation and get on with it in the most efficient way possible.

20 When it comes to operating, again, there are undoubtedly impacts on any road of any description, and especially from the expressway. However, just to put a couple of points forward, where trucks cause a lot of pollution is when they’re forced to come to a stop and then start again, and that’s what we’re seeing at Kapiti lights and at Waikanae 25 lights and also on all the bends in between. Diesel engines operate far more efficiently when they run at a steady speed, which of course they would do on the expressway as it went through Kapiti.

Also the people who are close to State Highway One, they built their 30 driveways on the current State Highway One, there’s far more houses in close proximity compared to the Western Link Road/Sandhills deviation, the proposed deviation where many of the suburbs have been designed with distance barriers in mind.

35 A steady speed thoroughfare is a far more efficient thoroughfare for vehicles to get through on and we can’t stop the vehicles, because one way or another they’re going to go through Kapiti.

There’s a number of observations, points and arguments made by those 40 people speaking in opposition to either some or all of the expressway, and I haven’t had the opportunity to listen to all of them. But there are a number of these points which are very, very valid and which I request that the Board take into consideration. Especially those things around noise and visual pollution and crossing ways, but there are others that 45 will be far better explained than I can explain.

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The point I am trying to make is that when you look at why people come to Kapiti, they do come here because of the lifestyle predominantly, and as an economy and as a business community, that is also one of the things that we have as a strength. It’s one of our 5 opportunities, because good people do want to come here and work here. For example there’s a burgeoning creative sector, based broadly throughout the district, but especially in Raumati, and many of those people are people who have escaped from Wellington, with respect to Wellingtonians. 10 [1.30 pm]

So, therefore, it is really important that while we feel the road needs to go ahead and go ahead now, that equally it needs to be built with the 15 mitigation measures that modern design practices can realistically put into place in New Zealand, and that is very important.

I have got one more major point and then I’ll just sum up very quickly. A decision to end 50 years of uncertainty. We’ve had 50 years of 20 discussion - not me personally, I only moved here in 86 - on this issue, and it’s time that was put to bed.

A decision not to put the expressway through now doesn’t mean that traffic won’t continue to grow, it will, and what will happen is our 25 community will, at least for a period of time, go through more years of uncertainty and stress because we still don’t know what’s going to happen with roading.

Those people near State Highway One, anywhere near State Highway 30 One, because who knows where NZTA might draw the lines the second time, are going to be concerned. Property values will be affected. Those people near the sandhills route, ditto. The increase in traffic is not going to stop, it’s just going to come back another day.

35 So the factors leading to the need for an expressway will only grow, yet the solutions will only get more difficult to implement, and with greater negative effects when eventually the tough decision is made. A decision not to proceed immediately will create continued uncertainty and stress for residential property owners throughout the district. 40 The threat of the expressway will not disappear, it will merely spread throughout the district and into the future, and this stress will manifest itself physically in health and also financially as the events of the last three years have demonstrated. 45

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A decision not to proceed immediately will create continued uncertainty for commercial property owners and investors, and I’ve already mentioned our anecdotal evidence that people are deferring significant investment decisions, and that’s to the detriment of 5 employment in Kapiti.

A decision not to proceed immediately will create continued uncertainty for businesses and there are many examples of that as relocations and lease extensions and all that sort of thing is every day 10 drift for business people, and where the road is going is critical to large numbers of them, and the last three years have been quite hard for many affected that way. We don’t want to see it continue. It causes stress.

15 A delay to the approval will also cause uncertainty for town planning and the Council, infrastructure and civic amenities, and this will have social and financial cost to our community.

Kapiti and Wellington have been debating this for the last 50 years and 20 we think now is the time to make the decision and we submit that to you. Further delay will have ongoing negative consequences and it will further increase public frustration with a seeming inability to make decisions and act on them.

25 So a decision not to proceed with the expressway at this very point in time will condemn the Kapiti community to years or decades of uncertainty, argument and stress, as well as unsafe roads and environmental effects from the current highway, which is substandard. The factors leading to the need for an expressway will only grow, yet 30 the solutions will only get more difficult to implement and with greater negative effects when eventually those tough decisions are made. Please don’t put us in that situation.

Most people are not against the expressway on balance. If you look at 35 all the positives and all the negatives, we submit the on balance is clearly this thing should go ahead. NZTA’s route has caused some issues, understatement of the day perhaps, however we would submit that it’s the least disruptive route and it’s available there now for go or no go, and we do submit that this needs to be done now and not 40 deferred into the future.

[1.35 pm]

Thank you very much. 45 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much.

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Now the next submitter is Mr Waugh, but I understand Mr Axe wishes to address on Mr Waugh’s behalf, is that correct?

5 MR WAUGH: The other way around.

CHAIRPERSON: The other way round, all right. Sorry, Mr Waugh on behalf of Mr Axe.

10 MR WAUGH: Yes, correct.

CHAIRPERSON: Right, thank you very much.

MR WAUGH: Thanks. 15 Afternoon your Honour, members of the Board.

Mr John Axe is not able to be with us today, so I am just going to make a statement based on what he has prepared for you. 20 CHAIRPERSON: All right, well, thank you for your assistance.

MR WAUGH: So Mr John Axe purchased his property in 2003, which is 44 Ranch Road, I am not sure if you know the area, but it is a lovely 25 green area, big fields on the other side of the property. He went to great pains to detail and understand what the potential buildings were that were going to be carried out on the property or around the property before he bought it.

30 The Council informed him of the following: That the proposed road zoning was for originally a two lane link road only. So the link road would run within 500 metres of the property boundary, and then 18 months or so ago he got a letter from the Council stating that the proposed link road project would be less than 500 metres but no closer 35 than 50 metres to the property boundary.

In the past 18 months he has made several enquiries to the new proposed Peka Peka Expressway, which as he now understands it is proposed to be a four lane arterial highway, not the original two lane 40 link road as initially proposed.

Further to this, he has discovered the following: Through a recent meeting arranged between himself and his lawyer and the Peka Peka Expressway project team in Wellington, he asked to view the proposed 45 plan. At the time this showed that the planners had measured from the

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centre of his home to the edge of the expressway, and that was going to be 37.5 metres.

If you actually measure from the closest boundary point on the 5 property, not the centre, this would actually mean that the expressway was only going to be 25 metres from the property boundary. So he’d like to know why the NZTA and Kapiti Council have decided to unilaterally reduce the distance without any further consultation with him as a property owner and are they legally allowed to do that? 10 At the same time he was also informed that the planners had originally decided to put up noise protection barriers, but had then decided to remove them as they thought they would be unsightly and would not be aesthetically pleasing. The question he has again, is why are these types 15 of decisions being made during the planning stage without consultation with the residences that have to live close to the expressway?

If the expressway is approved he would personally prefer to have the noise barriers installed rather than not, because the planning team do 20 not think it would look very nice. The reality is they don’t have to live nextdoor to it and face the increased sound levels.

He also has an issue with the proposed sound levels that will be a result of the new expressway as he estimated an average over 24 hours of 25 59 dB by the experts engaged is not accurate or correct. He has personally measured the noise levels around the house over a 24 hour period with a handheld dB metre, which averaged 42, 48 and 53 decibels, which is an average for a quieter street.

30 So he does not believe that the construction of a four lane main arterial motorway positioned 25 metres from the property boundary will only increase the average dB level by 11 dB which is the average across his, compared to the average across the three readings.

35 He does not believe he should have to pay for a sound specialist to monitor the readings and write a report to prove that aspect. He leaves the responsibility of the NZTA and Kapiti Council to disprove his calculations, and I think from previous submissions today we’ve already heard than an average of 80+ dB is common for trucks over 40 that sort of motorway.

[1.40 pm]

Last, but not least, he has invested a considerable sum of money in 45 creating a working hydroponics business for growing local produce, such as lettuces, most of the rest of the property behind the house is

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market garden with greenhousing. He’d like to know how the NZTA is going to guarantee that the ongoing air quality from the pollution perspective to ensure his crops are commercially viable and saleable are not going to detrimentally impact the environmental changes that 5 the expressway will bring about. If they cannot reduce this impact sufficiently or guarantee that the crops will be detrimentally affected, how will they compensate him for this loss?

John’s perspective is that he doesn’t have a KiwiSaver plan or any 10 other form of investment, he has put his life savings into the property, the hydroponics business with a view to potentially selling it and living off the proceeds as a retirement plan, which, you know, he is 10 years away from retirement.

15 The reality is that the proposed expressway has and will dramatically impact the financial value of the property and his future ability to sell it. Therefore, if the proposed plan is to be approved he is looking for the following outcomes: That the NZTA acquire his property at full market value or that the NZTA pay a one off loss in the value of 20 equivalent to 50% of the present full market property value.

If the NZTA decided to opt for option 2, which is the 50%, he’d also like guarantees that the proposed sound barriers and sound barrier proofing that has been removed from the plan for aesthetic reasons is 25 reinstated to reduce the noise levels to a minimum.

He’d also like to know what his options are if the plan goes ahead, the expressway is built and the sound levels or air pollution levels are greater than the experts are claiming they will be. What rights and 30 recourse does he have from a legal perspective, and is there any way that this panel, if they approve the plan, can put some caveats on the plan being approved so that local property owners, such as himself, can be compensated should the NZTA and Kapiti Council not meet the original planning calculations. 35 Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much.

40 Well, that completes the submissions for today, so we will adjourn until 9.30 tomorrow morning, thank you.

MATTER ADJOURNED AT 1.43 PM UNTIL WEDNESDAY, 9 JANUARY 2013 45

Kapiti Coast 08.01.13