TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

BOARD OF INQUIRY

MacKays to Peka Peka Expressway Proposal

HEARING at KAPITI COAST on 17 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)

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[9.32 am]

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Mr Hassan, I understand that there is some 5 information from Mr Nicholson but he is, dare I say it, stuck in traffic.

MR HASSAN: Yes, he is either stuck in traffic or he did mention he had someone else to see today and it may well - - -

10 CHAIRPERSON: All right, we will deal with it immediately after the first adjournment when he arrives if that‟s suitable.

MR HASSAN: Yes, sir. That is suitable, sir, his indication to me was if I‟m a bit late it‟s because I‟m meeting somebody, sir. 15 CHAIRPERSON: Well, we‟ll take back the “stuck in traffic”, thank you. Now, Ms Lenk.

MS LENK: Well, your Honour, members of the Board, members of Kapiti and 20 advocates for Kapiti, other government officials and representatives and I think the media. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to articulate my deep concerns about the expressway proposal which you are considering and I oppose the proposal in full.

25 I am concerned that it‟s going to be your forbearance that you may have heard most of what I‟ve said before and the reason I have come is - - -

CHAIRPERSON: Well, that‟s probably the case but we understand the 30 reasons for that so don‟t feel troubled by it.

MS LENK: Well, it‟s just that several people specifically asked if I would come and give my presentation so that is why I am here.

35 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.

MS LENK: In front of you I have given you just a bit of an overview of the format of which I will follow. After my introduction I will give a little bit of my professional and personal profile because it impacts on what I 40 have to say. My focus is the social impact and health issues for the people most directly affected by the construction and expressway proposal, a few conflict resolution principles, as I am a conflict resolution educator, a recommendation in my concluding statement, thank you. 45

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So professionally I am a member of the New Zealand Association of Councillors and I run stress management relaxation programmes and Tai Chi Qi Gong classes for people with cancer and other life threatening illnesses. I also run these Qi Gong exercises known to have 5 many health and mobility benefits for people in retirement villages, older people and the general community. Most of the participants in these classes are over 70 with a few in their 90s.

On a voluntary basis I visit people in rest homes, people with serious 10 health conditions in their homes and others who are house bound or home based because of their caring commitments. And personally I have lived on the Kapiti Coast for 24 years and I am a member of Grey Power, the Raumati South Residents Association, U3A and I‟m a member in many other community organisations. 15 Recreationally I enjoy cycling, walking, gardening and Nordic walking and these are almost entirely Kapiti based and outdoors. The focus today follows my reading of the social impact reports tabled by the New Zealand Transport Authority in the social impact reports 20 presented by Dianne Buchan, Mary-Jane Rivers and the Kapiti Coast District Council.

[9.36 am]

25 It‟s my extensive background in working with the elderly, the disabled and people with serious life threatening illnesses which informs this presentation. To do this I travel throughout Paraparaumu to Waikanae, as far north as Te Horo and south to Paekakariki.

30 Safe local roads which minimise travelling on expressways, motorways, highways are important to me as it is to the participants who come from the whole area to attend these classes.

It is my own experience of having quite a serious health condition that 35 is trigged and exacerbated by exposure to vibration, noise, lights, sleep deprivation and other adverse environmental conditions that increases, I believe my understanding of the seriousness of these factors on peoples mental and physical health and their ability to manage.

40 So I went to New Zealand Transport Authorities social impact report hoping that I would find some data on which to be able to base my presentation. I wanted particularly the health and disability factors for the residents who live very close to where the expressway could go through, and other than a general Kapiti population statement there was 45 very little factual data and numerous unsubstantiated generalisations which I personally found quite hurtful.

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Three other social impact reports done by Dianne Buchan, Mary Jane Rivers and KCDC did a type of peer review and have outlined how the report done by Ms Meade Rose is in their words methodologically 5 flawed and that no comprehensive social impact assessment or health status survey has yet been undertaken so I fully support their recommendations that these two studies are done prior to a final decision regarding this expressway proposal and I gather that this will more fully comply with the requirements of the Resource Management 10 Act.

The population figures which are in that chart ED0CS255023 which are resourced from KCDC does make it possible to make some generalisations from the demographic data to the impact the 15 expressway will have on those whose homes are most directly affected. The percentage of elderly in Kapiti is around 25 percent is expected to rise despite the higher death rates in this age group.

Likewise the population of children under 15 which is also around 20 20 percent is likely to increase. These two most vulnerable groups in society therefore make up nearly 50 percent of Kapiti‟s population. It seems evident therefore that as the proposed expressway runs right through the densely populated areas of Kapiti, children, the retired and elderly will be highly represented in those areas. Other home based 25 and housebound people will also be represented. These would include the disabled, those with debilitating illnesses, beneficiaries, shift workers, parents caring for under five year olds and home based businesses. I gather that all the elderly who live in the MetLife Care Facility will also be affected. 30 According to one report that is already before the Board there are 1,360 householders living within 200 metres of the proposed route and 2,860 families within 400 metres. If one takes perhaps an average of three people which I think is conservative per household, this could add up to 35 more than 12,000 people.

The proposed route according to Mary Jane Rivers report also passes around Makarini Street which is assessed as being “the most economically deprived in the Wellington and Kapiti area” and 40 according to Mary Jane, as you will have read, these are likely to be in the area more one parent families, families without vehicles, rental properties, families with few assets and resources to relocate or advocate for themselves.

45 People who are home based or homebound depend on their home environment being as lifestyle and health friendly as possible and many

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just cannot remove themselves to avoid noise and disruption. I visit sick and elderly people in their homes, as do many of the health and support services in the community and any external noises make it impossible to communicate as many are already hearing compromised 5 and this adds to the problem.

[9.41 am]

Homebound, housebound people depend on their visitors and support 10 services for their mental and physical wellbeing. Loneliness, isolation, helplessness and the inability to escape from untenable situations can result in reduced life expectancy, increased illness, depression and suicide.

15 Other expert witness reports have detailed the research which links life threatening conditions with exposures to road construction and motorway pollution. Bronchitis, neurodegenerative conditions, dementia, Alzheimer‟s, sleep disorders, cardiac disease, lung cancer, cognitive defects in children, stroke, stress disorders, depression and 20 pregnancy complications to name a few.

So, anecdotally, I have listened to many accounts, some of them are quite horrifying, by families whose child or spouse has been rushed to hospital, often in the middle of the night, from asthma or respiratory 25 attacks – always with the fear that this might be a fatal attack.

Dusts and fumes are two of the main hazards of road construction, and I believe New Zealand has one of the highest rates of asthma in the world. The local respiratory support group was no consulted by anyone 30 from Land Transport Authority regarding respiratory risks for Kapiti residents living in the most affected areas.

So, without a health assessment survey, there is no credible data available showing the range of health and disability factors for those 35 4,220 families living in close proximity to the construction and completed expressway.

Light, noise, and vibration – they all contribute to sleep deprivation. The long-term adverse physical and psychological effects of sleep 40 deprivation are well documented.

Not everybody relies on adequate sleep at night time. Many elderly people, babies, sick people and shift workers require and rely on being able to sleep during the day. These groups can expect to be especially 45 adversely affected during the four to five years construction phase, so

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restricting weekend and evening construction times will not in any way mitigate or lessen the impact of sleep deprivation on these residents.

When I first shifted to Kapiti 24 years ago, I set up a small counselling 5 and careers guidance business from home. This meant that clients came to my home, and I needed to make many telephone calls. If there was any external road construction noises or tree felling types of noises, it was actually impossible to run my business during those times. 10 So, without sufficient data, how can one know how many home based businesses will be affected similarly from the unrelenting noise and vibration of road construction.

15 Those employed and those away from home during the day will benefit from reduced evening and weekend construction, but those who are confined to their homes will not.

So I don‟t know of any real mitigation options that will reduce the 20 amount of dust coming into people‟s homes and properties and especially affecting those with respiratory conditions will ensure babies, the elderly, sick, disabled and shift workers have adequate sleep during the day, enable people who to hear and converse with health practitioners and visitors, protect home-based businesses, especially 25 those reliant on client visits, telephone and child caring services to continue operating successfully, or at all.

Now, recognition of the severity of the community severance and the adverse impact on people‟s lives was given so much priority by the 30 New Zealand Transport Authority, that in July 2009 it rejected this route for the Expressway because “it did not meet acceptable and integrated planning standards and unduly severs our community in comparison to existing highway in Paraparaumu”.

35 Since then, there has been a dramatic shift in weighing up the cost to the community and families, with the purported benefits for freight carrying vehicles and through traffic taking priority.

[9.46 am] 40 In the Land Transport Authority Report the impression I got was that the adverse social impact effects were inconsequential compared to what was purported to be the benefits for traffic.

45 The alternative of the Western Link Road and state highway upgrade actually improves connectivity for the local communities without the

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devastating adverse effect of the proposed expressway route on the Kapiti community as well as improving the traffic congestion problems for through traffic.

5 So I really do have to ask why should the elderly, the lower socioeconomic groups, the house bound, young children and parents, the disabled and ill bear the brunt of the social, health, psychological and financial adverse effects of this proposal? I consider a grave injustice has been accorded to the people and communities of Kapiti, 10 especially those whose proximity to the expressway will have such marked known adverse impacts on their health and quality of life. So I am asking the Board to address the imbalance of information on the human and community consequences of this expressway to ensure that the appropriate professional surveys are done in accordance with the 15 RMA requirements and that they be completed before an informed decision on the expressway is made.

I have some concerns about the compromise suggestion of a package proposed by Mary-Jane Rivers and my concern is that, for those people 20 whose lives will be so severely affected, there will be no recourse to have the decision rescinded if the decision is to allow the expressway to happen, to go ahead. A package would also, in my view, not meet the RMA requirements which stipulate that when making a decision adequate consideration be given to any likely significant effects on the 25 environment which includes humans.

And now from a conflict resolution perspective the model I was trained in and sought solutions that were fair and equitable to all parties concerned. Palpably the traffic solution before this Board is not based 30 on these principles. The overriding priority given to the needs of freight carrying and through traffic are at the expense of the Kapiti community and its natural environment. Most of us who oppose the so called solution are convinced there are alternatives which meet the priority needs of all concerned. They actually increase the safety and 35 interconnectedness of Kapiti as well as ensuring freight carrying and through traffic travel can travel quickly and easily without the extra impediment of mixing with local traffic.

So those are my recommendations that the reports be done and that 40 reconsideration be given to those alternatives which include giving the people of Kapiti an improvement in their situation.

And, for my concluding statement, is that what I am really hoping from the Board of Inquiry is that due weight will be given to the principles of 45 justice, fairness and equity when weighing in the balance the lives of Kapiti citizens and its beautiful natural environment, alongside the

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needs of through traffic to travel easily and safely through this district. Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much. 5 COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Can I just ask a question, you know, you are in favour of the Western Link Road and upgrading the state highway, what do you see is the difference. What do you see is the difference, I mean that will still involve substantial construction work, noise, dust 10 et cetera? Do you distinguish between that and what is proposed here?

MS LENK: I think it‟s – I‟m sorry I lose words – I think it‟s the extent of the impact and the length of time it will take and the number of people and homes that will be impacted upon so I think it is a level of, I‟m not 15 quite sure what the word is I‟m sorry.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Level of degree or something?

MS LENK: Degree, thank you very much, yes, I think a degree. Does that 20 give you an answer?

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Yes, but I mean presumably you acknowledge that even if there Western Link Road is built there will be lots of impacts on the community? 25 MS LENK: Oh, yes, I realise that. I think if I had my preference I‟d probably prefer some little extra interconnecting local roads with a bridge. That was a consideration given by the New Zealand Transport Authority at one time and, for some reason, it was discarded and if I had to choose 30 between the two then that would be the one I would choose.

[9.51 am]

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Okay, thank you. Thank you, your Honour. 35 MS LENK: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Ms Lenk, you may stand down. Mr Sole from the Contractors Federation. 40 MR SULLIVAN: So it is Giles Sullivan actually rather than Jeremy Sole, Jeremy‟s on annual leave at the moment. So I‟m the central regional manager for the New Zealand Contractors‟ Federation or NZCF as we prefer. 45

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So thank you very much to the Board for this opportunity. We feel it is a very worthwhile project. First of all let me tell you a little bit about NZCF. Established in 1944, the New Zealand Contractors‟ Federation represents the interests and the aspirations of over 600 member 5 companies which include large and medium sized and small businesses involved in the civil engineering and construction and the general contracting industries. Collectively NZCF member companies engage over 20,000 employees nationally.

10 Before I get into any details I have got two high level comments that I would like to make or observations. Firstly, that is that the NZCF supports in full the MacKays to Peka Peka expressway proposal on the basis of overall economic benefit to the wider community. We believe these encompass the improved and more predictable journey times, 15 they encompass improved road safety levels and also positive environmental impacts through the reduction of pollution due to improved fuel consumption rates which we estimate to be around 20 to 25 percent improvements at peak times by reducing airborne pollution.

20 The second point is just to clarify that NZCF would contest any possible reference to the fact that our submission might be financially self interested. Insofar as the MacKays to Peka Peka project it is not an additional expenditure on behalf of NZTA but rather the reallocation and reassignment of funding that would otherwise be made available 25 for other projects. On that basis the industry position is revenue neutral and, as such, I would like the opinions we are about to suggest to be considered as robust and unbiased.

So the three key areas I do want to comment on briefly, one is 30 capability, the capability to mitigation environment controls, the process that we‟re going through, in terms of resource consent and EPA process, and also obviously cost.

On the capability front NZCF submits that the industry has the 35 capability, the skills and, importantly, the will to deploy sophisticated environmental protection strategies, practices and technologies so as to meet any consent conditions that may be applied and thereby avoid, or substantially mitigate, any negative environmental effects both during the construction and also post-construction during the operation phase 40 of the road.

Still on capability. The ability to protect against environmental damage and the continual improvement of strategies has been demonstrated on numerous projects over the last decade. At a high level environmental 45 protection strategies from a construction perspective include, among others, the management of topsoil, water control, vegetation control,

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maintaining tidy work sites, managing sensitive sites, cultural, indigenous flora/fauna and including waterways, noise and dust control, fuel and capital (ph 4.25) use, equipment maintenance and the process we are going through now, authorisation and consultation, to 5 ensure compliance. In terms of capability the contracting industry takes environmental concerns seriously. Indeed many construction firms have already achieved ISO 140001 environmental standards.

NZCF produces the green book, which I believe you have a copy of, 10 which is designed to assess contractors in identifying strategies to protect the environment. Some of the strategies there are quite detailed but there is much more study on the subject and we have a relatively large number of experts on the subject. Furthermore our strategies are strongly aligned with the NZTA‟s environmental plan and also their 15 erosion and sediment control standards for the state highway infrastructure.

[9.56 am]

20 In terms of process NZCF asserts that the consent conditions should be determined by quantifiable outcome based measures and metrics. Such indicators should be measured onsite by engineers to ensure that the environmental objectives of the EPA sought are in fact delivered.

25 This is in preference to more traditional methods and strategies where planners often specify predetermined treatments, engineering solutions or methodologies as opposed to outcomes. NZCF maintains that planners should determine the required outcomes whilst qualified contractors and engineers should be permitted to determine how those 30 outcomes are achieved.

Still on process, with a strong industry focus on environmental protection, the management thereof is a significant contributor to project costs. NZCF advocates the environmental protection attributes, 35 outcomes and requirements should in fact be determined before the tender stage in the process earlier in the lifecycle so the environmental factors may then be integrated into those tenders enabling transparent cost modelling that fully considers environmental requirements, thereby ensuring financial, functional and environmental success of a 40 project.

The RMA is largely silent regarding the cost of environmental treatments and to date planners have not considered it their function to balance cost versus benefit. Feedback from planners confirms that the 45 financial viability of a project due to the cost of consent conditions

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normally imposed before the contract pricing is not currently a concern of theirs.

However, in the case of the McKays to Peka Peka expressway NZCF 5 cancels that a robust cost benefit analysis should be actively considered when setting consent conditions to ensure the financial and functional success of the project.

Finally on the subject of opportunity costs, experience shows that 10 excessive consent conditions for projects and likely to incur opportunity costs in the broader New Zealand context. With limited funding available any money spent on unreasonable or unnecessary consent conditions is money that cannot be deployed elsewhere, for example other highway safety initiatives and that concludes NZCF‟s 15 presentation.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, thank you very much.

MR SULLIVAN: Thank you. 20 CHAIRPERSON: Ms Svendsen? Just when you are ready.

MS SVENDSEN: Good morning sir and Commissioners. Could I just check that you have a copy of my speaking notes with what you have been 25 given there? They are entitled Joy Svendsen speaking notes.

CHAIRPERSON: Are they at the end are they?

MS SVENDSEN: I have a feeling they may have been missed. 30 CHAIRPERSON: No, there seems to be a lot of documents.

MS SVENDSEN: I will start and Paula it is on the USB disc if you could print those copies out for me? It is entitled speaking notes. They were 35 on another email.

CHAIRPERSON: When was that supplied so we can get a date for it?

MS SVENDSEN: Yesterday. 40 CHAIRPERSON: Right.

MS SVENDSEN: Thank you, I will just carry on sir.

45 CHAIRPERSON: Yes, thank you.

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MS SVENDSEN: Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. Thank you also Commissioners for your attentiveness and genuine questions that you have been asking submitters. Thank you, sir for your fairness and patience that you have shown us ordinary folks as we have tried to 5 express what is on our minds and what it is about this project that troubles us so much.

[10.01 am]

10 I would like to tell you some of my personal story and then cover some general objections to the proposal, namely people, process, construction, connectivity, culture and history and type of road.

My personal story is; my name is Joy Svendsen and I have lived on the 15 Kapiti Coast for 27 years. Firstly at Raumati Beach and now at Waikanae Beach.

During my 27 years of living here I‟ve raised a family, worked locally, commuted to full-time work in Wellington, run a business from home 20 and currently work as a research assistant at Te Papa Museum.

This means I‟ve travelled extensively between Paekakariki, Raumati South, Raumati Beach, Paraparaumu Township, Paraparaumu beach, Otaihangi, Waikanae, Waikanae Beach, Tauhoro, Otaki, Rikiranga, 25 east Waikanae and east Paraparaumu.

I have walked, run, bicycled, used local and intercity busses, commuter trains, held an HT license, owned a scooted and driven by car between all these destinations. So I‟ve made frequent trips to every single part 30 of the Kapiti Coast thousands of times and I therefore consider myself an expert on travelling about the Kapiti Coast and in and out of the District.

All this time I waited and hoped for a second bridge over the Waikanae 35 River, and so I also consider myself definitely an expert on wanting a second bridge over the Waikanae River and better ways to get about.

Over these 27 years, I‟ve transitioned from a young, energetic mother to an older, wiser, slower grandmother. In the course of that time I‟ve 40 gone from raising children through to them qualifying at university, travelling overseas and returning to New Zealand, then coming full circle back to settling to live on the Kapiti Coast because they too believe it‟s a great place to live and bring up my grandchildren.

45 I live at the southern end of Waikanae Beach within easy walking distance of the Takamore Heritage Precinct. My home is on a hill

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800 metres from the beachfront. I enjoy views of the Tararua Ranges, Kapiti Island, and out to sea all the way to Mt Taranaki.

I have the privilege of being able to walk on the beach, around the river 5 mouth, beside the estuary, around the lagoons and along the magnificently restored Waikanae River walks. I have all these seaside and rural activities, as well as prolific birdlife available within a kilometre of my home.

10 I enjoy the peace and quiet where I live, a clear bright night sky, hearing the waves on the beach, fresh air and a happy, friendly neighbourhood. I find this to be a healthy, stress free, positive place to be.

15 Prior to moving to the Kapiti Coast in 1986, I‟d been a restless person and moved frequently. Now I‟ve met and come to know so many wonderful people here, the Kapiti Coast has happily become my permanent home.

20 Mt Kapakapanui has become my mountain. The Waikanae River my river. Kapiti Island enthrals me. The Kapiti Coast owns my soul and the people of Kapiti own my heart.

Just moving on now to my general objections. Every single point that 25 I‟ve raised in my submission has been covered by other speakers – cleverer and much clearer than me. I find that they are amazing, committed, caring, generous people, passionate about protecting and making our environment special and I have found it just heart breaking listening to the stories and witnessing the toll of how people have 30 suffered already before this project has even started.

I 100 per cent support the comments and evidence of every submitted who has opposed this motorway in full. I have either listened to their presentation or read their transcript. They presented everything that‟s 35 important to me and it‟s a true and accurate account of my feelings and experience also.

I‟ve asked myself what can I possibly say today that hasn‟t been said before that would be helpful to you as a Board in making your decision. 40 I will therefore try to stick to just a few points that I‟ve not heard mentioned very thoroughly, and a few that I just cannot avoid repeating.

On the topic of people. I‟m now long past the point where a second 45 bridge over the Waikanae River will make as much difference to my day-to-day travelling activities as it would have in the past, therefore,

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I‟ve tried to look at the NZTA proposal objectively and asked myself “is there any way it could be better for the people of Kapiti than our local Western Road?”, it‟s not going to be in my backyard, so really, ideally, I‟d prefer to just forget about it. 5 [10.06 am]

However, my conclusion is that people must come first when considering economics, faster travel times and major changes to the 10 local environment. Local communities should not be sacrificed for national interest.

They must be recognised as part of the overall economy and a vital part of an integrated plan. Exciting, fun, pleasant and enjoyable local roads 15 can be the major part of a balanced package of infrastructure improvements. Sustainable and multi-modal transportation measures will deliver improved productivity and economic efficiency. Faster travel, burning limited fossil fuels and rushing about on ugly roads don‟t make for happy, healthy people. 20 The Minister for Transport needs to realise that focusing on a presumed economic benefit derived from major motorway investment completely fails to take into account people. Focusing on people creates opportunities for economic activity, occurring in local areas as part of 25 the overall neat benefit.

Removing the burden of a potential 650 million plus debt from the shoulders of all New Zealanders and replacing it with the affordable local community focused sustainable transport option will have far 30 greater productivity benefits for all New Zealanders, as well as immediate direct benefits for the 50,000 people who live on the Kapiti Coast.

Just moving on to process. The process has been mentioned a lot, but 35 there are several points I must reiterate. I am not here today speaking about the MacKays to Peka Peka expressway, but I‟m here speaking about the MacKays to Peka Peka motorway. Under NZTAs definition of an expressway and a motorway, this is clearly a motorway. I haven‟t included that description because I know it‟s been presented 40 before. So that‟s how I refer to it.

For me, the confusing way this proposal has been presented to my community summarises why I‟m here today and why we‟re so heavily dependent on the wisdom of this Board to see it for what it really is. 45 The process reveals a project which has never been called what it really is, a motorway, and we‟ve not been given a full description of the

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proposed work that demonstrates its true size or impact on our district. We‟ve not received clear details, nor have all aspects of the real and permanent effects and damage to our local environment have been thoroughly investigated. No alternatives, particularly the local western 5 link road and improvements to state highway one and rail services, were ever considered.

Discussion and public consultations centred on choosing a route. There is not clear evidence the designation being reasonably necessary to 10 meet the objectives of their requiring authority, and it‟s never been proven or demonstrated to be needed in the first place.

For me, the process started 18 years ago when the route, previously known as the Sand Hills route, was changed from the status of being 15 for state highway purposes to a local road. Transit determined that the alignment as a motorway was not the right thing to do, the alignment should be used for a local arterial road and the state highway should stay where it is. This designation was formally lifted in 1999.

20 That was of great interest to me, because when I first moved to Kapiti and thought about where I‟d like to live, I wanted to know where this designation was and what it was. We rented at first and then I bought my current home at Waikanae Beach. I did my due diligence and double checked the maps, confirming the designation was for a 25 proposed local western link road and a second bridge over the Waikanae River. At that time, in 1999, I was convinced there would be a second bridge over the Waikanae River by the time my youngest went to high school.

30 I attended my first of a multitude of public meetings relating to this process in 1997. So 59 years ago the Sand Hills route was put in place, and 18 years ago it was changed to a local road status. That reflected the changes of the district at the time.

35 I take great exception to NZTA using the term “Sand Hills Expressway” as part of the publicity and consultation for the current proposal. The expressway designation has not existed for 18 years, and NZTA created confusion, implying that a Sand Hills expressway route was still there. 40 [10.11 am]

After 15 years of hard work, full community consultation and debate, much negotiation, thorough investigations and hundreds and thousands 45 of rate payer‟s money, the route and design of the local road was agreed on and given the name “Western Link Road”.

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I‟d attended workshops, Council meetings, written submissions, followed the news and the progress with great anticipation. I was excited about the soon to be started sustainable, green, exciting looking 5 option.

Therefore, I also take great exception to the false and misleading use of the name “Western Link Road” by NZTA during the consultation phase for this proposal, when what NZTA are really talking about is, in actual 10 fact, a four lane motorway with 10 flyover over bridges and interchanges.

The consultation was confusing in every way, should have been called, I think, “confusation”. I, just like others, attended every possible expo 15 and information session and constantly was told different answers to the same questions and never got information that was promised for me.

The proposal should be rejected for this reason alone and if it was ever 20 proven that there was a valid need for something different than the local Western Link Road and improvements to State Highway 1, then a proper and robust and honest consultation should take place, not a process full of misleading information.

25 Unfortunately, I deleted my notes of all my submissions and things to do with the Western Link Road because after 15 years I thought in April 2010 it was about to start, I‟d like to have made those available to you. I have included some other supporting documentation around that if it would be helpful. 30 Just moving on to construction. So, I‟m up to page five.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes, I have it, thank you.

35 MS SVENDSEN: The ways in which I personally would be affected by this motorway proposal are: during construction, noise vibration, airborne dust and pollutants, potential poisoning from CO2 gasses released from peat, years of disruption and delays of travel time movements, years of sharing my own, once safe, local roads with large construction 40 machinery, trucks moving peat and sand and bringing in fill, night time sleep disturbance, winter time light pollution, emotional stress from having a situation forced upon me that was detrimental to my health and the previous lifestyle I had enjoyed.

45 I will add there that thinking in terms of what it would be like to live through the construction of the Western Link Road and thinking of

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what it would be like to live through the construction of this motorway, I think the major difference is the fact that it‟s an at grade road – it‟s only two lanes, it‟s a series of roundabouts, and the thing with emotional stress is if something‟s been built, if there‟s an 5 inconvenience there, but it‟s something that you want and you can see yourself as having a long-term benefit, then it reduces the feeling of helplessness and distress and increases your patience with the process, but to have to live through something being built, which you feel and find completely and utterly destructive, and which is enormously 10 bigger than that process, that‟s where the real stress comes in, which rolls into all the other negative health effects.

I know the worst part will be the vibration for me during the construction. Since moving to Waikanae Beach 14 years ago we have 15 lived through our entire area being changed from empty sand hills to houses and every single time that a house has been built, the pile drives have to go to work – sometimes for a day at a time, and because of the unstable ground sometimes they just have to keep going and going and going till they reach the ground level, and it‟s like having a mini 20 earthquake in your house, and it just goes on all day long – boom, boom, boom, and because of the sand hill area around there, it just reverberates in a phenomenal way, and over the last 10 years we‟ve had family competitions to guess how far away a particular house is when we heard yet another lot of hammering going on. 25 Building such a large, heavy structure as the four lane motorway will involve the Waikanae River Bridge, moving the national gas pipeline, removing, replacing and compacting enormous volumes of sand dunes and building an incredibly high full motorway interchange within a 30 kilometre of my home, for that, us, that will be five years at least of mini vibrating earthquakes, at least 100 times more impact than the impact of putting in some piles for a house.

[10.16 am] 35 After construction I will continue to be affected by the noise, airborne road pollution, vibration, light pollution, impact on the local ecology, groundwater, storm water, sediment control problems, pollutants discharged into the Waikanae River, the negative visual impacts on the 40 landscape, with the motorway interchange blocking my view of Kapiti Island as I travel down Te Moana Road to my home.

One area of my biggest concern is the Waikanae Township. Waikanae would become invisible and inaccessible to passing traffic. My local 45 village will be under threat of longer term decline or reduced growth as a result of the loss of passing trade. Waikanae retailing may not even

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be able to survive the increased competition from the shopping areas that are closer to the motorway.

Because of that jobs will be lost, small business will suffer financial 5 loss and will constantly be fighting the woes of a bypass town. I would just like to add there we changed the entrance to Lindale a number of years ago and they have never recovered financially or businesswise just from changing the entrance. We are talking here about completely and utterly bypassing a town and putting the main highway the longest 10 distance away from that town than anywhere else in the district.

I am also concerned about the proposed spend of 4.5 million upgrading Mahara Gallery and 3 million upgrading Waikanae Library. This could be under threat due to reduced visitor numbers. The investment in 15 Kapiti Island of time and money by DOC over many years could also suffer due to the reduced value and cause reduced tourist visitor numbers.

Kapiti Island is an internationally unique predator free bird sanctuary 20 which relies on the easy passage of native birds through a free flowing corridor from the Island to the Tararua Ranges. The birds flight path would be seriously obstructed by the intrusion of the exceptionally high Te Moana interchange, the Waikanae River bridge and all the other raised interchanges and over bridges that are part of the proposal. 25 Just flicking back to that comment about the spend on Mahara Gallery and Waikanae Library, that is a total of a 7.5 million spend and we currently spent approximately 8 million on upgrading our council buildings and that represents a big spend for 10,000 to 15,000 people in 30 the Waikanae area and the Mahara Gallery have got to raise a third of their money themselves and with the Christchurch earthquake and the impact on funding, that is a big ask and just the slightest decrease in their visitor numbers could be the difference between that being feasible or not being feasible. 35 For me fuel usage will increase to make the short trip to Paraparaumu I will have to go via the Te Moana Road interchange, speed up to drive up the ramp and onto the motorway and enter the truck and cyclist lane, then accelerate to reach 100 kilometres an hour before de-accelerating 40 to exit and travel extra distance on a congested Kapiti Road to get myself back onto the western side of the motorway. All my local trips will be slowed by either the barrier of the Te Moana Road interchange or the 16 kilometre barrier running from the end of Kapiti to the other. Getting on and off the motorway to travel out of the district will be 45 limited and more difficult involving negotiating increasingly congested local roads.

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My other big area of concern is Te Moana Road. It is a pleasant tree lined avenue currently used by cyclists, horse riders, mobility scooters, walkers, runners, mothers with babies and pushchairs, children, elderly 5 commuting in local trip vehicles. It is understood to be the most attractive major street in the Kapiti district and is currently the benchmark for KCDC and our aspirations for other major routes.

After construction less than a third of the current local trips will enter 10 directly onto the motorway at Te Moana Road interchange. However, this once safe and relaxed road will become congested as a feeder road for the interchange with all the trucks and vehicles servicing the Waikanae supermarkets and businesses travelling up and down, plus one would hope also the connecting Intercity and Naked Buses. 15 Although it is possible that the Waikanae stop for this service could be cancelled. Property values will drop dramatically on Te Moana Road and the footpaths will no longer be a pleasant place to walk. My rates will rise as our local council will struggle to manage the cost of 20 maintaining a poorly kept existing state highway which will continue to have heavy usage plus the additional cost of Kapiti Road, Te Moana Road, Park Avenue and multiple local roads which will become feeder roads for the four motorway interchanges.

25 [10.21 am]

My local environment will be irretrievably degraded and future unwanted development around the Te Moana interchange will be a constant threat. The previously peaceful walk beside the Waikanae 30 River will be degraded and cycling and walking tracks will be disjointed and often involve being beside an unpleasant, polluting motorway.

True mitigation could only be achieved by avoiding this proposal in its 35 entirety, anything less will just be pretending that people are important, when in actual fact proving that they have not rated at the top of the priority scale as they should be.

A quick bit on connectivity; when I assessed my most common trips for 40 the last 25 years and compared them with the motorway proposal or a local linking Western Link Road, I found that my journal times would be considerably longer on the motorway due to the east-west barrier effect and the difficulty of being on the congested feeder roads, with longer travel times and increased fuel use. 45

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The local Western Link Road, with improved rail service and improvements to State Highway One gives opportunities for increased use of public transport, safe walking and cycling, new and shorter car travelling routes, big savings in travelling time and fuel costs, plus a 5 less stressful and far more enjoyable journey.

The railway line already divides the community in two. A motorway between the sea and the existing barrier would divide the community into three. Social cohesion and community spirit will be damaged by 10 the severance and physical separation in the division created by a large continuous concrete barrier. The social impacts would include the isolation of communities and increase costs to household incomes as they have to rely more on vehicle access to move across the barrier via the fewer connecting points. 15 The motorway will create unpleasant, unenjoyable urban form and design. Local connectivity and efficiency will be much worse. Options for more east-west roads and all hope of ever improving or increasing them in the future would be permanently blocked. 20 The potential for integrating trains, buses and multi modal sustainable transport with our main highway through road will be unachievable because of the separation created by the motorway and the existing Waikanae Railway Station in the main Paraparaumu transport hub. 25 Moving on to culture and heritage; I recently told a German friend about the family reunion I was attending to celebrate my cousin‟s family having farmed this same piece of land for 100 years. My friends reply was “oh, I just got back from a family reunion in Germany to 30 celebrate the pub belonging to our family for 400 years”. This reminded me once again what a young country we are and how important it is to treasure and project what little bit of history and culture that we have.

35 The Takamore precinct area and the area around that part of Waikanae Beach is a precious remaining link to our early Waikanae settlers. The Greenaways Manor is adjacent to this area.

I am related to Harry and William Field who were two very influential 40 European men in the early establishment of Waikanae during the 1870s through to the 1890s. They were fluent Māori speakers and good friends with Wi Parata and the local Māori.

Harry occupied the Ferry Inn at the Waikanae River Mouth and on day 45 eight Mary O‟Keeffe, I think it is, presented exhibit 14, which is a small blow up of an 1880 map of the Takamore precinct, and the wider

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part of that actually shows where Harry Field‟s homestead was, and I believe you have actually looked a couple of days ago at the physical copy of that map in that area, but it is significant to me because of the fact that the European‟s were right there as part of that Takamore 5 precinct.

Willy started the first bank in Waikanae and the first residential subdivision at Waikanae Beach, they were both members of parliament at different times and advocated for all that was good for a growing 10 Waikanae.

The proposed $4.5 million spend on Mahara Gallery is to house what is known as the Field Collection, which is a special historic collection of artworks by Francis Hodgkin. She is the sister of Willy Field‟s wife, 15 and that‟s how come that collection is here in Waikanae and how come it is so special.

[10.26 am]

20 The registered Takamore Waihi tapu is also the site of the Nga Huruhuru gardening area, the Tuku Rakau Maori Village, the Makatu tree and the urupa. The spiritual and cultural values associated with the area for tangata whenua hold major significance for them. The whole area contains the history of the extensive previous wider settlement. 25 For Takamore trustees and their families it‟s one of the few remaining physical areas expressing their history and cultural values over which they can still have some influence in ownership.

30 It‟s really disappointing that when an offer was made to move Greenaway Manor, which would have allowed the motorway to avoid the Takamore wahitapu, NZTA didn‟t even take that offer up.

I stand by everyone of the impassioned pleas opposing the motorway 35 designation through this historical area, which we heard on the 26th of November at the Whakarongotai Marae. I say once again, enough is enough. We‟re Treaty partners with Maori and on this one point alone the motorway proposal should be declined. As partners with them we cannot take away any more of their land, we cannot even consider 40 disturbing a site in any way at all, which is sacred to them in every way.

Moving on the type of the road. 20 years ago my children used to play a computer game called “Rollercoaster Tycoon”. When I looked at this 45 motorway with its 10 interchanges, over bridges, and the bridge over the Waikanae River, I can‟t help but think the designer is stuck in the

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land of „rollercoaster tycoon‟, and 20 years out of date. The motorway goes up at Poplar Avenue, down and up at Raumati Road. I‟ve missed a bit out in there – up and over Wharemauku Stream, down and up at Kapiti Road, down again and up at Mazengarb Road, down again and 5 up at Otaihanga Road, down and up over the Waikanae River, down through the national gas pipeline in wahitapu area, down and up over Te Moana Road, underneath Ngarara Road and underneath Smithfield Road, and up again at Peka Peka Road, plus over drains, streams, through sand dunes, peat, wetlands, swamp, old river beds and low 10 lying coastal land.

My conclusion is that it‟s the wrong type of road in the wrong place, it‟s too wide, too long, too expensive, too ugly, too damaging, too unnecessary, too divisive, too noisy, too unhealthy, too close to the 15 coastline and destroys too many homes and ruins too many peoples‟ lives.

I‟m just finishing up here. NZTA has previously said in the 1990s, and I quote: “they are committed to working with others to ensure 20 integrated land use and transport planning, helps deliver an affordable multi-modal transport system that supports a growing economy, vibrant communities and an healthy environment now and in the future.”

That won‟t happen with the proposed motorway, and I believe it‟s time 25 to dismantle this rollercoaster road and proceed with the local western link road to the standard KCD was committed to, and that is, as you‟ve heard on many occasions, the two-lane western link road, investment in rail improvements to state highway one, and I‟ve amplified what I mean exactly by that, particularly what improvements were scheduled 30 for the state highway one that would make a difference.

I‟ll just refer to the attachments that I‟ve given you here, they are some things which I thought may be helpful to you. Number one is a map of my area, and my property is the A in the middle, and it‟s just showing 35 my proximity to that whole area, which is of historical significance to me and a great treasure to the Takamore, plus it‟s showing my close proximity to the beach and the rural area.

I‟ve also wanted to just show you how long myself and many others 40 have been trying to participate in this whole road thing, so I‟ve put in some copies of my submission to the LTP, I‟m number two. Another submission for the 2012 LTP on transport in talking about the Mahara Gallery on three, I have also, on number four, put in my submission to the government on their policy for land transport funds for transport 45 modes, how they allocate them.

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[10.31 am]

I have given you a copy of a petition that I signed as number six, and a copy of an email I wrote regarding a television report. I have given you 5 a number of pages there from eight, nine and 10 regarding Mahara Gallery and just the whole story surrounding that Field Art Collection and how important it is to us and what efforts have been put into being able to house that and also the costings there on number 11 for what‟s proposed to be spent on the Waikanae Library and that gallery upgrade. 10 Going through to 13 is a media release and 14 and 15 are some of the responses that we all felt – through to 16 – when we first got told about this proposal and how horrifying it was for us. There‟s a transportation specialist report there and some more media releases regarding traffic 15 on 18, and on 19 an email regarding a query I had for traffic volumes because I was trying to establish – It was really difficult to establish what the traffic volumes on Te Moana Road were going to be like. Were they going to be worse, were they going to be better, how many people really would make that route all the way down there to get onto 20 the motorway for the short trip to Paraparaumu or how many of them would actually stay on the existing highway.

And there‟s just the map there of the proposed Western Link Road and what that represents is just so completely and utterly different from 25 what the proposed motorway represents. If you think about those ups and downs I described, this here is an at grade road and the last couple of slides are part of James Lunday‟s presentation and when we think about how come we don‟t care about a bridge being built over the Waikanae River as part of the Western Link, but we‟re opposed to the 30 bridge as a part of the motorway, it‟s just the absolute dimension of scale and the lack of input that we can have into that final design and the difference that it could be if we had an attractive bridge going over there, and number 22 is supporting my concerns regarding the barrier and the lack of linkages, and finally a proposal of what could happen at 35 Waikanae, rather than it being a bypass town.

Thank you for your time, sir.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. 40 MR APELDOORN: Just a rather simple question I hope. In the attachments at 17 you have got a transportation specialist report, that document seems to be an addendum to some other report, is that right?

45 MS SVENDSEN: Yes, sir. I have a number of other reports which I also made available, but they were very long, so they‟ve been made

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available on USB. So the actual report that goes with that addendum, Paula will make available to you electronically.

MR APELDOORN: Right. I am wanting to put that, I guess find that to try 5 and put that little report there into some context, because it‟s saying effectively that at grade intersection this could have a significant effect on the capacity of a thoroughfare, and I‟m just – I‟m wanting to understand that, can you shed any light on that?

10 MS SVENDSEN: Yes. It‟s quite a long report, I think it‟s 20 or 30 pages. For me what that‟s talking about is the Western Link Road would be separate from the main thoroughfare, so having at grade intersections there is completely and totally appropriate and meets our connectivity needs. Whereas on the main state highway we don‟t want intersections 15 we want to get rid of as many intersections and entry‟s and exits off that main highway as possible and that was what I detailed in those proposed improvements to state highway one, apart from getting rid of the number of intersections, also getting rid of the traffic lights and putting an underpass at the end of Te Moana Road running through to 20 Elizabeth Street, and a whole package of things there.

But, yes certainly, that does need to be taken into account in consideration with all the other pages of the report.

25 [10.36 am]

MR APELDOORN: Just one further question, towards the end of your representation there you listed a whole raft of things and I heard those, they were too wide and too long et cetera, and the last one was destroys 30 too many homes. Do you, in your own mind, attach different weight to some of those things or you feel they all carry equal weight if they were to be assessed side by side?

MS SVENDSEN: Just off the top of my head the three things that carry the 35 most weight for me is the sheer number of houses which will either be destroyed but worse still the incredible volume, 1,400 I think I believe it is, of houses that will be within 200 metres of the motorway.

The second thing for me is the barrier and the blocking of the 40 connectivity and there‟s only, I think, six connecting points from the east-west. It means that once and for all we can never improve that situation for our district. It means that there‟s just this line put down there, you‟re allowed across at these points, that‟s it, you can‟t grow, you can‟t improve, you can‟t expand on this. That carries really large 45 weight for me.

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And then the third one is the people, it‟s just the astronomical effect on people. People raise families, people participate in the community, people support one another, people go to work, people pay rates and pay taxes and make an invaluable contribution to our community and to 5 our whole country. And when people are stressed and treated poorly and have uncertainty and are then subject to a whole lot of damaging health effects it‟s devastating and there is an economic factor to that but it‟s much harder to quantify than 10 trucks of stones will cost this much and a 1,000 loads of concrete will cost that much. But it‟s a far greater 10 cost and the benefit of not causing that harm to people, I believe, is really, really significant.

MR APELDOORN: I mentioned briefly the question about destroying homes and some of the evidence, I guess, that we have had presented to us 15 have made the same point that you have raised. Some of the evidence that has been put forward by the applicant about the impacts on homes of upgrading the existing state highway alignment, they seem to be two to three times more significant in terms of the impacts on homes. Can I just ask have you considered that or how do you make a balance 20 between upgrading the existing state highway against the homes effects in this corridor?

MS SVENDSEN: Yes, I have thought about that a lot.

25 To me the difference is just poles apart. The houses that are on the existing state highway knew what they were letting themselves in for when they placed themselves there or lived there and even as the need came for making that road wider, and possibly taking some of those homes or exposing those homes to a greater level of noise and pollution 30 and vibrations from what they are used to, the number of those homes - I believe the figure is something like 180 but I might not be accurate on that – is miniscule compared to the number of homes that are affected. And it comes back to that thing of emotional stress and the feeling of helpfulness when something‟s foist upon you that you were never 35 expecting and that you didn‟t want in the first place and that is not beneficial to you at all. And, for me, the sensibleness of having the highway where it is right next to our rail and where it‟s firmer ground and over where it‟s not firm ground, that all multiplies, apart from the airborne pollutants and the noise and the light. There‟s also the 40 unstable ground that a massive big high up and down motorway thing is going to be sitting on and so, to me, the effects completely cannot be compared, I don‟t know maybe 10 percent compared to 100 percent impact regarding the houses between if they were on an upgraded State Highway 1 and if they were left next to a new motorway. 45 [10.41 am]

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MR APELDOORN: Thank you very much. Thank you, sir.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. 5 MS SVENDSEN: Thank you, sir.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr and Ms Hare. Could I just remind submitters of the time limits that we would ask you to try and respect if possible. So I 10 take it you haven‟t made available the copies of the report.

MR HARE: I didn‟t realise we had to do that.

CHAIRPERSON: Well, it was made very clear in the material what was 15 required.

MR HARE: What material was that?

CHAIRPERSON: That was circulated and is on the website. 20 MR HARE: I never went to the website. I‟ve actually had - - -

CHAIRPERSON: Well, let‟s move on, are you both going to speak?

25 MR HARE: We are, yes.

MRS HARE: Yes, we are.

CHAIRPERSON: All right. Well, if you just move the microphone between 30 you whenever who is speaking, because it‟s all being recorded and typed up and you may, sit of course, if you wish to.

MR HARE: Incidentally, it is Mr and Mrs Hare, we‟ve been married 40 years.

35 CHAIRPERSON: Well, we thought that which is why we wondered why there was two separate submissions and that‟s why we called you together.

MRS HARE: Thank you. 40 MR HARE: Oh, there‟s a lot happened in our family in the last six months that‟s why it‟s all fragmented.

CHAIRPERSON: No, that‟s fine, please let‟s make a start can we, because 45 we have got a very, very large day because we have accommodated people who have been away on holiday.

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MR HARE: No problem, I assure you I will be quick.

CHAIRPERSON: No, you take the time you need. 5 MR HARE: No, it‟s all right. Right, my name is David Hare, I reside at Erinwood (ph 2.23) in Smithfield Road, Waikanae. Just so you know Erinwood is a QEII covenanted property of approximately five hectares. That is to say it is covered in mainly mature well established 10 native trees which are now protected with a QEII covenant for future generations.

NZTA‟s proposed expressway will have an effect on the hydrology of this property. They have on several occasions stated the hydrology and 15 associated pollution problems are under control. Now, however since presenting my written submission the Kapiti District Council has advised that they are applying for a resource consent for a river recharge system. This will effectively remove large volumes of bore water from the Ngarara-Smithfield area. This alone is a major concern 20 as they recently have had to close down an adjacent bore because of potential saltwater problems. Couple the river recharge system with NZTA‟s radical revamp of our waterways and wetlands then the result could prove disastrous.

25 It is worth noting that drainage ditches on adjacent farmland has adversely affected Erinwood. Swampy areas have dried to expose large buttress roots on mature kahikatea and pukatea trees. Some of these trees are estimated to be well over 200 hundred years. One rimu is considered to be 3 to 4 hundred years old. To quote QEII, “The 30 ecology of Erinwood has been left in a delicate situation”.

I ask the EPA to ensure that KCDC and NZTA are requested or hopefully made to provide a joint impact report before consent is given to either project. To go ahead ad hoc, as they seem to be doing 35 currently, is a frightening prospect, imagine when something does go wrong. The accumulating damage that could occur while they shift blame or responsibility to each other would be of nightmare proportions.

40 I have emails from NZTA assuring Marie and I that the proposed expressway will not affect our health. I don‟t know how they can say this. I marvel the fact that Marie and I are still married. Words cannot express the stress that we are under. We would never have purchased Erinwood if the western Sandhills had been designated for a four lane 45 expressway. Due diligence showed that the Transport Agency considered such a road was impossible to build. NZTA is quite

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specific in their statements that they wanted KCDC to build a link road which they would support with funding.

[10.46 am] 5 For this reason alone NZTA has a moral, and probably a legal obligation, to ensure our community does not suffer unnecessarily from this expressway.

10 With reference to the 2003 Land Transport Act, the EPA should ensure that realistic mitigating costs in compensation are factored into the expressway budget before consent is considered. Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Yes, if you just twist that microphone a little 15 sideways so we get your comments on the record as well. Just indicate if it‟s not being picked up, okay?

MRS HARE: Good morning. My name is Marie Hare, I reside at Erinwood, 66 Smithfield Road in Waikanae, and I am against this expressway in 20 its entirety.

First of all, I left school at 14 with very little education, because my family struggled to support a family of seven, so as you can imagine I found this process daunting, and I only hope I can keep within the 25 panel‟s criteria here as I go along.

You will have before you my submission giving details of my health issues that were related to constant broken sleep patterns due to traffic noise. I had no way of knowing that the insidious intrusion of traffic 30 noise could be so detrimental to my health. There is plenty of evidence around that disturbed sleep is recognised as a serious health issue, in fact most, if not all, scientific reports state or rate traffic noise as the most serious and pervasive type of noise pollution.

35 We purchased our property shortly before 2008 elections. We chose this particular property for its quiet rural aspect and spent nearly a year looking for a property that would give us what we desired. Somewhere special and as far away from the city as we could get, but still be available to family, we chose Erinwood only after we did exhaustive 40 due diligence.

During this due diligence we came across the resource management hearing for the two-lane western link road, it was dated June 1998 and signed off by the three hearing commissioners, Bruce Vornholt, Helen 45 Tobin and Graeme Hadwell. They concluded from a summary of work, undertaken for the then Transit and KCDC, that it would be

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extremely difficult, if not impossible, to construct a four-lane expressway on the western Sand Hills. All aspects were looked into and calculated in accordance with Transit‟s procedures, it even noted that six options were identified for a detailed analysis. In fact 5 everything that NZTA is now doing to make this expressway happen had already been looked at by their predecessor, Transit.

In August 2010 NZTAs, Regional Director, Jenny Chetwynd, announced that her organisation made this decision to resurrect the 10 Sand Hills expressway. This is the same agency that 12 years before said it was impossible, because ecologically and socially the impact was too great on this community.

I would like to draw your attention to the Land Transport Act 2003 15 which states “the purpose of the Act is to improve social and environmental responsibility and Land Transport funding, planning and management.” Relevant agencies such as NZTA must also take into account the protection and promotion of public health. This is why I am here today, to ask from this panel, your help in assisting us to 20 ensure NZTA take their responsibility seriously, and public health issues to be factored and priced into their budget.

The World Health Organisation state that “external night noise guidelines should never exceed 40 decibels, and at 42 decibels show 25 disturbed and unrestful sleep.” I understand the decibel limit for Europe has been lowered to 40 decibels due to serious health patterns occurring there. I got this information online.

New Zealand is still set at 57 decibels, this is 17 decibels highly the 30 WHO recommendation. It is my understanding that every 10 decibels doubles noise level. NZTAs urban planner, Jane Black, stated in her email letter to us, dated the 5th of July 2011, “the expected decibel at our property would be between 45 and 51 decibels, and at the house proper approximately 48 decibels”, and she said it is well within their 35 criteria, therefore no noise mitigation is proposed. I struggle with these comments, as in previous noise surveys that I have seen they indicate that 39 decibels is what one can expect in a rural location.

[10.51 am] 40 It should be noted that this is a difference of five decibels, which is a 50% increase in noise level. I am not an expert on how decibels are able to be rated for individual properties, but I cannot do the math on this one. 45

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The current ambient level for our property is set at 44 decibels, as no one has ever stepped foot on our property to measure the accuracy of this, I feel the decibel could be almost anything. In fact I have read that the ambient noise level in a rural area reached 39 decibels and my 5 reference is a Dom Post article, 4 November 2011.

An Australian report showed ambient levels as low as 34 decibels, so as you can see I have no way of knowing what is what here.

10 Our house is on an elevated site, I would not think this has been taken into account. This expressway is on the southern side of our property, it then passes us on the western side and then leaves us on the northern side.

15 The predominant wind here is nor-west. We will get noise pollution driven by the wind on almost any given day or night. If the ambience is 44 decibels, how can four decibels more be correct at my house? As I have said, it does not quite make sense to me. I don‟t think that NZTA‟s noise experts have done enough research to make this claim as 20 being correct. Experience proves that atmospherics on a given day can increase noise considerably.

The World Health Organisation is, in my mind, God on this subject and should be taken absolutely seriously. I feel New Zealand standards 25 should be brought into line with worldwide best possible practices. To be still set at 57 decibels with so much overwhelming written literature on the subject of noise and health issues, I would have expected New Zealand to fall into line with world health findings.

30 In my experience with noise, and I refer to my written submission, I say how this expressway will change our environment from being essentially a quiet library to being a busy shopping mall. That is traffic noise from this expressway will be a 24 hour continual din. This is of major concern as heavy transport mainly moves through Kapiti at 35 night.

Because of the expected expressway noise factor, last year we asked four real estate agencies to price our property, they were Harcourts, Remax, Professionals and First National. They told us our expected 40 price will be compromised because of the proximity to the expressway designation.

So not only do we now find ourselves in a vulnerable situation heathwise, we are also in an economic nightmare as we are forced from 45 our home.

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If this road is of such national significance and is so important for the national good, I would think that NZTA should take great care to incorporate into their equations the 2003 Land Transport Act to improve social and environmental responsibility and put back into 5 place the promises laid out by them at the very birth of this expressway.

When they showed pretty videos and pictures of an expressway with hardly any cars, no traffic noise and no lighting, and where is the bunding, the quiet road seal, the vegetative plantings that were shown 10 anywhere you cared to look when NZTA were originally selling this concept to our coast?

I ask this panel to help ensure we are represented fairly by NZTA. I request that bunding on both sides of the expressway, being a minimum 15 height of four metres, along with noise mitigating road seal and double glazing at our house, also thick plantings along the entire route, as this was all shown and explained to us that we could expect this.

I don‟t feel we are being unrealistic in this request as we did due 20 diligence thoroughly. It is NZTA‟s decision to force this proposed expressway on our doorstep, so in the scheme of things it is not a lot to ask NZTA to honour their original commitment, and then to be left in peace and harmony with nature as we intended when we first purchased Erinwood. 25 Those who are for this expressway should be made very aware of the huge sacrifice we are being demanded of. My health is already being compromised, the quiet peace and serenity of Erinwood will be gone. This expressway will divide us and our neighbours, bar one. 30 Our property has now lost value, for what, a few minutes saved by the trucking companies, growth for the developers who will endeavour to reap the rewards for businesses, who will be forced to close as the expressway divides us even more? Such a lot of misery for so little gain 35 is way beyond me.

Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mrs Hare. 40 COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Can I just make a comment that mightn‟t be of much comfort to you, but the 57 decibels is an outside noise level and I think the 40 might be an inside one, so there may be differences between inside and outside that - - - 45 [10.56 am]

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MRS HARE: Okay, I will take your point. I did as much research as I could with what I had available.

5 MR HARE: What do you actually mean by that, sorry?

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: The New Zealand standard I think says that you can have 57 outside and the World Health - - -

10 MR HARE: And who recommend 50 so that is still seven so you are looking at a 70 percent increase in noise over and above - - -

MRS HARE: I am sorry if I made a slight - - -

15 COMMISSIONER BUNTING: I cannot get into that technical detail, but I am just making comment that there is a difference between inside and outside.

MR HARE: For sure. 20 MRS HARE: So you can see how hard it is for a layperson to fight your way - - -

MR HARE: We are laypeople and we are fighting our way through what is a 25 lot of it is beyond us.

MRS HARE: A nightmare situation.

CHAIRPERSON: No, we understand that. 30 MRS HARE: So I am sorry if I have made the inside outside slightly different.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: No, we are just trying to provide a bit of - - - 35 MRS HARE: It is still going to be huge.

MR HARE: I think the main problem with us is that Marie has had problems with noise before, traffic noise from the different work areas we have 40 worked in.

MRS HARE: I think you have that there do you not?

CHAIRPERSON: Yes. 45 MR HARE: I think you probably have it.

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MRS HARE: Which is why I did not go down that track.

MR HARE: We did purchase this property and we actually took a year to find 5 a property that was far enough away from a motorway that would suit Marie and then soon after this foisted onto us. You can appreciate where we are coming from I think.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Sure, thank you, thank you sir. 10 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much.

MRS HARE: Thank you.

15 CHAIRPERSON: Mr Farr? Come forward Mr Farr.

MR FARR: Good morning your Honour and members of the Panel.

CHAIRPERSON: Good morning. 20 MR FARR: I am one of those who lives in Makarini Street.

CHAIRPERSON: Just before we go on have you got written material that we need to make copies of, or not? 25 MR FARR: I have submitted my - - -

CHAIRPERSON: Is that the same as the one you have already submitted?

30 MR FARR: That I right.

CHAIRPERSON: Okay, that is fine.

MR FARR: I am one of those who lives in Makarini Street. 35 CHAIRPERSON: We visited you, yes.

MR FARR: You came onto my property a wee while ago in your visit through the valley and I would like to point out sir that the indications that we 40 are going to get another bumper crops of lemons that you saw when you were here last time.

CHAIRPERSON: That tree has done well after you told it off.

45 MR FARR: Exactly, very well.

Kapiti Coast 17.01.13 Page 2292

I have been very surprised this morning by two women who spoke earlier on and I feel quite inadequate in coming here now after what they have said this morning, because both of them have said exactly what I would have loved to have said and I bow to their superior 5 knowledge.

But having lived in Makarini Street for 17 years I think I am pretty familiar with what goes on. Our property was the fourth to be developed in that section of the subdivision and so I am pretty familiar 10 with the whole area and of course Makarini Street is in an inter dune area therefore we have got swamp, we have got peat. We have got all those sort of things in the mix beneath our properties.

This is of some concern because all along, as you know now, along my 15 back boundary, the western side there is a large sand hill, but to the right of that and you did not move down there, I am sure you did not see this, but there is a great big dip and that is a swamp wet area. My concern is what is going to happen when the road is going to be built over that area. I guess the experts will know the answer to that, I hope 20 they do.

But my concerns as I have outlined in my submission, brief in all that it is compared with some of the others who have spoken this morning. My concern is the noise that is going to be taken place and am I going 25 to be compensated with double glazing to help mitigate that concern? Also what effect is it going to have on my health? I am one of those now who I think will be classified as the elderly being in my mid 80s and the fact that it is explained that it is going to be another five and a half years at least of construction work. What is that going to impact 30 on my state of health if I continue to live in this property?

If I decide not to live in the property, what is it going to do to the value of the property, probably it will not concern me, it will concern my children of course in the long term, but that is their worry, not mine. 35 [11.01 am]

The other concern that I have is, because of the length of time for the construction, what effect is it going to have on the building. It is a 40 textured exterior, the vibration, the dust, all those sort of effects. I‟ve been given to understand that one of the things that could happen and has happened in other instances that I was told about, the interior of the house – cracks appeared in the ceilings and in the walls and so on through the vibration of the work that was carried on with the heavy 45 machinery.

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The thing that scares me stiff is that when I look at the bear moths(ph 0.51) that cruise down and thunder down state highway one, are going to be doing the same thing along my back boundary in the middle of the night, and what‟s that going to do to my sleep patterns. I sleep 5 fairly well now and I hope to continue to do so too, but am I going to be hearing all of that sort of thing way through in the middle of the night, and that‟s really quite a worry to me.

Yes, what compensation am I going to get. Well, I understand not a 10 lot. NZTA have got it pretty well wrapped up, and the Public Works Act and all those sort of things you‟ve got it pretty well wrapped up that I will not be compensated thank you very much.

So all in all, like a lot of other people who have spoken this morning, I 15 don‟t want that motorway. I was involved with going to meetings and so on with the western link road, and I was delighted with the prospect of what that road was going to be, beautifully landscaped, moving in and out, round and about the Sand Hills on its way through, building going across the bridge at Waikanae, and all in all a very pleasant piece 20 of addition to our Kapiti Coast.

I don‟t want this great big concrete chunk plonked in my back door, thank you very much. So I totally object to the whole project.

25 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr Farr.

MR FARR: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Just a moment, we will see if there‟s any questions? 30 COMMISSIONER PAINE: No questions.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: No questions of me.

35 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr Farr.

MR FARR: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Enjoy the lemons. 40 MR FARR: The answer was a lemon, like the road name – the motorway‟s a lemon

CHAIRPERSON: Very good, very good. Mrs Schager? 45

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MR SCHAGER: Thank you, good morning. As an non-expert homeowner, I would like to highlight aspects of my submission from my perspective that would have a direct impact on my home and lifestyle.

5 My home is zoned residential at 107B, or postal address 5/103 Makarini Street. Our western boundary is the eastern boundary of the proposed pathway from Kapiti Road to Mazengarb Road. Our home is within 40 to 50 metres from the centreline of the expressway. The living area of our residence is 3.25 metres from this boundary. 10 The photos show northwards, southwards and the distance from the boundary.

Four metres from the proposed expressway‟s eastern boundary is an 15 eight metre drop to the peat areas, where it appears, according to the (INDISTINCT 4.24) eastern carriageway were built.

And then there‟s photos looking north, looking south. That‟s the photos over the fence. The next is the two maps. The two maps 20 indicate peat levels, and the first one indicates there‟s no sediment, the next map indicates they‟re going to excavate the peat and replace it, and the next map indicates the slope of over 20 percent.

[11.06 am] 25 Construction noise would generate vibration increasing damage to our home already experienced by settlement and subsequence subsidence. We have replaced the unit dividing wall as the dwelling walls were damaged, settlement has caused subsidence that pulled the attached 30 wall away from the dwelling. The building report on purchase gave no indications it would occur and I note in the CNVMP we are high risk sensitive receivers.

Just go back to the sketch. That indicates the damage that needed to be 35 repaired and we have replaced the wall, that‟s one of the first photos, I think it is 5. We have replaced that wall.

CHAIRPERSON: Sorry, which wall are you referring to?

40 MS SCHAGER: The dividing wall to the units.

CHAIRPERSON: Right.

MS SCHAGER: The visual display at Coastlands gives the impressions the 45 earth bund will be level with the roof of my home. The height of the earth bund is given as seven and a half metres but we‟ve got an eight

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metre drop and I note that the houses in the next sandhill drop, are set further back from the boundary and others with existing sand dunes also appear to be set back further from the boundary.

5 The proposed noise wall stops at St James Court which is further up the road. We will also be affected by transfers of sound rebounding from the western side noise wall. Depending on the wind direction we already notice this sound echoes with planes taking off at the airport. It appears we will either over look the expressway and be subject to four 10 lanes of noise plus rebound noise from the noise wall of the western side on expressway completion or, because our home is only 3.25 metres from the boundary, have excessive shading from the bund. The maps do not indicate noise levels during construction.

15 Construction machinery and trucks using the proposed eastern carriageway as a pathway for haulage and peat removal are going to, I feel, increase the risk of further subsidence and damage to the textured wall of our home from vibrations from the commencement of construction as well as when construction is in the immediate area. 20 NZTA state they expect the noise level for sector 2 to exceed day and night KCDC residential noise criteria and the mitigation plans for the affected residents are, I find, confusing and inadequate. Exceedance has to be dealt with after it has occurred and the onus is on the residents 25 to complain.

The next two maps, the last, that‟s the vibration hotspots. That one indicates with the mitigation we‟re still in category B and the do minimum scenario we‟re one of the five houses in category C. 30 We are retired so we will be subject to the stress of long hours of disturbance by noise, vibration and pollution levels and are further disadvantage by our home insurance does not cover damage from the proposed expressway. The NZTA identifies us as an area where noise 35 levels will be exceeded. It also identifies the possibility of structural damage. Claims have to be lodged after the expressway is completed and query (ph 3.56) 2020 and we do not have the finance to fund a lawyer. We are now in a position that relocating is unaffordable.

40 For myself as a homeowner it is difficult to have confidence in the NZTA mitigation offered where it stresses consultation with the affected residents and there has been no consultation with us. Information is difficult to obtain and difficult to understand and I feel I am left with no options whereas the NZTA have other pathways, BPOs 45 and mitigation options. I note that the option to have clear noise boards was rejected because of cost. Heavy transport has a rail option and

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neighbours who rent have financial mobility and are able to move and relocate.

Despite Dr Black‟s criticism my outcomes sought remain the same, 5 adding these issues are addressed before construction commences, enforcement, guarantee of noise, air pollution and vibration controls during construction and operation as this is a residential area to minimise and alleviate damage to homeowners and properties that are in a position similar to myself as it occurs. 10 [11.11 am]

Thank you.

15 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Thank you very much.

MS SCHAGER: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: We will take the morning adjournment now for 15 minutes, 20 thank you.

ADJOURNED [11.12 am]

RESUMED [11.28 am] 25 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Yes, Mr Hassan, we‟ll deal with that matter now.

MR HASSAN: Thank you, sir. Are you happy for Mr Nicholson to simply 30 address you from where he is or?

CHAIRPERSON: Yes. Just carry on.

MR NICHOLSON: Okay, thank you, sir. 35 So just to provide a little update on some of the submitters concerns that have been raised.

The first one is, I think it was Mr Craig and Ms Anderson, which was 40 submitter number 678 I believe. I wasn‟t here the day that they gave their submission, but I believe the issue that particularly was in question was around the noise fence along their boundary, and so that issue was actually addressed in the evidence-in-chief of Ms Wilkening, her operational noise evidence where she agreed that the option that 45 had a continuous fence along that section was preferable, and so that

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was option 4, rather than 4A, or in terms of the plan references it was reference number ENV-039, not 040.

So I guess what we hadn‟t quite ever closed out with her, unfortunately, 5 was to communicate that back to Ms Anderson and her husband or partner, so I have spoken to her and explained that as the case yesterday I think it was, it may have been the day before, and I apologised that we hadn‟t had that communication with her previously and so she now understands that that is proposed. 10 And we have two replacement plans for appendix 15B of that report, so the various options are described in appendix 15C and the preferred option or the proposed option is what is described in 15B, and that‟s what‟s referenced to in the draft conditions, and so there are two 15 replacement plans to go into appendix 15B, which shows the option 4 rather than option 4A, which is the longer fence, and I understand, from Mr Hassan, that we can put those in with our - - -

[11.31 am] 20 CHAIRPERSON: Closings.

MR NICHOLSON: Proposing to put those in with our closing legal submissions as a revised version 4 of those two plans. So those two 25 plan numbers are EN-NV-004 and 014, are the two that need to be replaced with the two new plans.

I have met this morning with Mr Alexander and Ms Neilson and I think they were No 619, although I may have that number slightly wrong but 30 I believe that‟s the one. Their concern or they had a particular question around the noise mitigation option that was being chosen along there and there were two options that were being considered and they specifically had said they didn‟t want option 2 to be the one that was chosen. So I was able to clarify that option 1, so the one that they did 35 want, was already the one that was proposed and is what‟s included in the plan set already to be what‟s provided. And that provides a continuous two metre high fence along a length, from memory, about 250 metres north of their property to about 150 or 200 metres south of their property. And they have also asked for various additional 40 information, which I have agreed I will provide to them in the next few days, about other matters.

And the third one was Mrs Leonard-Taylor who also addressed the Board on Monday, that was submitter No 594. She was particularly 45 concerned about her husband who has a heart problem or medical condition. So I have arranged to meet with her at the end of the hearing

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today. So I haven‟t yet met with her but I have investigated, the NZTA has a Hardship Policy around property purchase, which isn‟t part of our normal core requirements, and so I have investigated that policy and discussed it with our national property manager and there are a number 5 of factors which seem to be in play for this particular submitter around their age and the medical condition which seems at least to make it quite likely that there will be a reasonable case for agreeing, under a hardship basis, to the purchase of their property if that‟s what they want. She had indicated, I think in her submission, that they desired to 10 move into a retirement village but were finding that difficult to achieve. So I haven‟t resolved that one but it‟s in progress.

CHAIRPERSON: No, that is understood.

15 COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Can I just ask, she also raised concerns about traffic safety for access into El Ranch I think it was.

MR NICHOLSON: Sorry, Commissioner Bunting, I‟m quite deaf.

20 COMMISSIONER BUNTING: She also raised concerns about traffic safety for entry into El Rancho.

MR NICHOLSON: She did, yes.

25 COMMISSIONER BUNTING: I don‟t know if you recall that so presumably - - -

MR NICHOLSON: Well, yes, it‟s on a list.

30 COMMISSIONER BUNTING: On the list as well.

MR NICHOLSON: I mean there were a number of factors which I was intending to talk to her about but certainly they did raise issues about the existing entrance into the El Rancho Camp which is immediately 35 next door to their property.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Okay.

MR NICHOLSON: So that‟s something I‟m intending to talk to her about. 40 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Thank you. Thank you, sir.

45 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.

Kapiti Coast 17.01.13 Page 2299

MR HASSAN: Thank you, sir, those matters will be confirmed in closing submissions, sir.

CHAIRPERSON: Yes, I am grateful. Thank you, Mr Hassan, for having that 5 dealt with now. Pardon my pronunciation if I get it wrong, Mrs Aregger.

MRS AREGGER: Close enough.

10 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, just when you are ready.

MRS AREGGER: Good morning, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Petra Aregger, I live at 14 Greenaway Road in Waikanae. I oppose in full the applications for consent to build the 15 MacKays to Peka Peka expressway. I‟m also a founding member of Save Kapiti Incorporated. My family and I have lived in Waikanae for almost 13 years, nine of those spent living at Waikanae Beach and for the last four years at our current address.

20 Before purchasing our property at Greenaway Road we had looked extensively at rural lifestyle blocks in the Waikanae, Peka Peka, Reikorangi area and finally settled on a property at 45 Puriri Road, a property I believe the Court is now familiar with and that until recently belonged to the Tockers. 25 [11.36 am]

We had an offer on this property prior to it selling to the Tockers. We knew that there was a designation for a local road in this area and in 30 fact we did quite extensive research around the implications of a local road, not only on the property we intended to purchase, but on the area around Kauri, Greenaway, Prairie and Kapiti Roads.

We concluded that although living close by to the construction of a 35 local road would have some real, but temporary drawbacks, the benefits on completion of this road would be many, not least of which with a growing family would be better access to Paraparaumu for schooling, sporting and social activities via cycleways and bus services and greatly enhanced connectivity to other suburbs such as Otaihanga, 40 Mazengarb and Paraparaumu Beach.

It would also mean that we and our teenage son when old enough to drive could more safely negotiate a 50 kilometre local road as we would no longer need to use State Highway One to get to Paraparaumu 45 and as Mr Farr just recently has said, we too were quite delighted that

Kapiti Coast 17.01.13 Page 2300

the prospect of a beautifully urban designed local road in our community.

When our bid for the property at 45 Prairie Road fell through we were 5 lucky enough to purchase the property at Greenaway Road which sits with our northwest boundary adjacent to the Tockers south eastern boundary, our house sits directly behind Chris and Monica Dearden‟s which I believe you have also visited - - -

10 CHAIRPERSON: Yes, we have.

MS AREGGER: - - - and is separated by only a large sand dune. Our three acres runs east back to and is accessed via Greenaway Road. One of the reasons we were so drawn to this place is because of the special 15 character of the area. It abounds with birdlife, wetlands, is quiet and peaceful, has no noise or light pollution at night time. Our horses graze unaware they are living in a semi urban environment surrounded as they area by other paddocks grazing sheep and horses. The orientation of our home means our living room will directly face the proposed 20 expressway approximately 160 metres away from it, however NZTA consider us not affected.

On the first of June 2011 NZTA sent personalised letters to some residents of Kauri, Prairie and Te Moana Roads inviting them to attend 25 a design workshop on the expressway and I have attached that letter that was sent. Of note is the second to last paragraph of the letter which states “the workshops are by invitation and only for people who live near the expressway”. We did not receive an invitation. I was shown the letter by a neighbour. 30 I immediately sent an email to NZTA expressing our dismay that we had been excluded given our proximity to the expressway and asked that I be contacted directly and I have also attached that email. We never received an invitation or even a reply and in fact we have never 35 to this day had any personal correspondence from NZTA regarding our property or the expressway.

Given that we are one of only four lifestyle blocks in this area and that there is only one small lifestyle block between us and the expressway 40 and that we live in a quiet semirural environment that will be severely affected by the expressway I find this lack of communication from NZTA arrogant and insensitive.

I would also just like to add a note here that a few people this morning 45 have talked about double glazing and I would like to suggest that anyone in that 200 metre zone within the expressway should be offered

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double glazing as a very first base point for mitigation should this road go through.

When we were searching for a lifestyle block to raise our family on, we 5 looked at many. We wanted to create a healthy, happy, quiet and peaceful environment for our children to grow in complete with horses, chickens and domestic animals. We wanted our children to have respect for the land, surroundings and cultural context in which they live. 10 There were many lifestyle blocks to choose from, most of which were situated on State Highway One. We specifically rejected properties on or bordering State Highway One due to noise, light pollution, fuel emissions and lack of privacy. We would never have chosen to live 15 alongside an expressway, motorway or state highway and I am deeply worried about the health effects on my family due to our proximity to the proposed expressway.

I am also deeply concerned about traffic volumes on Te Moana Road 20 should the expressway be built. Te Moana Road is a five kilometre roadway stretching east west from the current state highway to Waikanae Beach. Literally hundreds of people live on this road. Hundreds of driveways line this road. Hundreds of school children, families, and elderly live on this road. 25 [11.41 am]

Te Moana Road would become the main arterial route into and out of Waikanae with trucks using this and Park Ave as their way to serve the 30 supermarkets, petrol stations and other businesses in Waikanae Village, as well as increased usage from private vehicles accessing the expressway.

Currently my two younger children bike, scooter or walk to and from 35 school two to three times a week, and this involves them crossing Te Moana Road at the already busy and complicated intersection of Greenaway/Te Moana Roads and Park Ave. I believe it would become virtually impossible for them to safely cross Te Moana Road should the expressway be built. 40 The ballooning cost of the expressway is alarming to say the least. I am sure you‟ve already heard much damming evidence on the economics of this road. As I am no economist I won‟t go into much further detail on this subject, other than to note that in the 2009 public consultations 45 the cost of the expressway was sold to the people of Kapiti with an estimated $360 million price tag.

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At this time and in comparison to the $120 million Western Link Road, it seemed not that much more to pay for a sleek, sexy, four lane expressway as the NZTA spin would have it, as opposed to a quaint, 5 quiet, but state of the art, urban designed two lane local road delivering total community connectivity. But, hey, the expressway‟s only just over twice the price and look at what you get people cried.

Look at what you get indeed. I can‟t help but wonder if the people of 10 Kapiti knew now that the cost of the expressway is $630 million and climbing. That this cost is for just 16 km of motorway. That their children‟s children will be paying for it for the rest of their lives. That it will cut through the heart of their community, spewing noise, pollution, vibration and creating a huge visual impairment on the landscape. 15 Would they not demand a better, more cost effective, environmentally sustainable alternative to Joyce‟s (INDISTINCT 2.20). I think they would.

The stunning Waikanae River in all its life given glory runs at the end 20 of our street. El Rancho Camp, where I visited as a teenager, and my children now go, along with hundreds of others, in school holidays and weekend camps to enjoy a pristine, healthy outdoor rural atmosphere.

The Tuku Rakau Village, the urupa, sacred Māori land, wahi tapu, 25 standing guard and ever watchful over its people. The Makatu tree creating a feeling of peace, reverence, history, means so much to the notion that this place is truly unique, truly sacred.

Every weekend as I ride my horse down the Waikanae River track to 30 the beach, passing walkers, cyclists, runners, family and children, I am reminded of the stunning, but ecologically fragile environment I have the privilege to be a part of.

How does a raised, concreted, four lane, 100 km/hr expressway fit into 35 this context? It doesn‟t.

Kapiti‟s roading solution needs to be economically robust, socially responsible, environmentally sustainable and culturally sensitive. The Western Link Road, with upgrades to State Highway One, is the most 40 cost effective, logical and environmentally sound solution to Kapiti‟s long term roading needs.

I would urge this Court to please reject NZTA‟s application for consent to build this monument to 20th Century thinking and let common sense 45 prevail.

Kapiti Coast 17.01.13 Page 2303

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.

MS AREGGER: Thank you.

5 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much. Ms Stephenson and Ms Usmar?

Good morning.

MS USMAR: Morning, thank you for listening to us. 10 My name is Robyn Usmar and I am here with Tink Stephenson to speak to our submissions, which completely oppose the expressway. Brian, my co-submitter, is not here, but we live in Peka Peka and we will be adversely affected by the proposed expressway. We will have to 15 live with more traffic noise, more traffic fumes, more difficulty moving around the district and a less cohesive community.

[11.46 am]

20 Our first point is that much of the evidence which is used to support the expressway proposal compares the expressway to the status quo. The choice is not between the proposed expressway and the status quo as many people have said, it is between the expressway and the western link road, which would have been operating long before the 25 expressway is built. The western link road would have added a second crossing over the Waikanae River and separated local traffic from through traffic.

Andrew Murray‟s evidence on the likely improvement in traffic flows 30 from the proposed expressway makes much of the difficulties caused by only one Waikanae River crossing and by the mixing of local and through traffic. But the western link road recognised and solved these issues before the expressway was conceived. Combined with upgrades to state highway one, it would achieve equal or better outcomes for 35 many of the traffic issues that the expressway seek to solve. It would cost less, it would could less environmental damage, and improve community connectivity.

The western link road, combined with upgrades to state highway one 40 was the chosen option of the majority of Kapiti people.

What would it be like living alongside the expressway? We have spent time in Hutt Valley trying to negotiate around the monster four-lane state highway which divides that community. The community there in 45 the Hutt is separated into little sections by the four-lane roadway by the height of its retaining walls, by the complicated full and partial

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interchanges, by over roundabouts and underpasses. It is so hard to drive from one neighbourhood to another, from one shopping area to another. We see no bikes or horses, and very few pedestrians. Is this what we want in our beautiful community? It is not. 5 So we ask the Board to decline the MacKays to Peka Peka expressway proposal because the western link route and upgraded state highway one would provide a better outcome for much lower financial, environment and social costs. 10 My second point is that NZTA repeatedly states that it has consulted widely. My experience has been that we were misled by maps which do not label the access lanes nor show the full catchment area for the Peka Peka roundabout. Current maps for this part of the expressway do 15 not show the effect on our area of the changes resulting from the Peka Peka to Otaki section of the expressway. Maybe they‟re hiding away on the internet somewhere, but I can‟t find a current map that shows what happens to all the traffic on the new local road between Otaki and Peka Peka, the road just falls off the edge of the map. 20 And we are presented with a map of the Peka Peka intersection which shows a new local road that goes from Te Kowhai Road to Peka Peka, it‟s very short, it doesn‟t include all the traffic that will be coming from south of Otaki from Te Horo, from Te Hapua through to Peka Peka. I 25 haven‟t been able to find a map that shows that, but I‟m not saying it doesn‟t exist.

If the decision is made on the information without taking into account the effect of the next section of expressway, it will be too late for 30 changes by the time the submissions are considered for the Otaki to Peka Peka section. Many people in the Peka Peka area do not know the full implications of this interchange because it‟s too hard to find out.

Also, seemingly misleading, are statements from NZTA representatives 35 at the information meetings, about which route people would take to the Te Moana interchange and how much traffic will be on the Peka Peka to Rutherford route. The representatives repeatedly said “everyone will go through Waikanae”, and we know from living at Peka Peka, that even now people don‟t go that way. With a full 40 interchange at Te Moana, a lot of traffic from south of Otaki will travel through the Peka Peka Road, along Rutherford Drive and get to the Te Moana intersection that way, because the Peka Peka intersection was changed from a full interchange to a partial one.

45 If there‟s so much missing and misinformation about the small area that we know about how much truly information consultation has there

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been? And we don‟t know about the rest of Kapiti so well, but we do know our area and we just can‟t get the information we need.

[11.51 am] 5 We were asked for feedback, but the results were not made available and nothing seemed to change. Consultation requires listening and we have certainly not been listened to. We ask the Board to decline the proposed expressway because NZTA did not make full information 10 available, because the information was confusing and because they did not properly consult us.

We oppose the partial interchange at Peka Peka. We are totally opposed to the whole expressway but if it goes through against our 15 wishes, we request that the Peka Peka interchange be made a full interchange. If there was a full interchange at Peka Peka all southbound traffic from south of Otaki to Peka Peka would access the expressway at Peka Peka to head to say Wellington, Paraparaumu or Porirua. 20 Because of the partial interchange all that traffic will instead reach the roundabout beside the expressway. They have choices for accessing the expressway. Choice one they can drive along the new local road, through an underpass, around another roundabout onto the old State 25 Highway One, drive at 50 k‟s an hour to Waikanae where they will negotiate traffic calming measures such as trees, pedestrian crossings, mid road refuges, narrow lanes and other measures which are proposed by KCDC and NZTA.

30 Eventually they will reach Te Moana Road and drive down to the full interchange and onto the expressway. Now we fully support the changes that they are talking about doing in Waikanae but to say that people are going to travel is eight kilometres and it is more than 10 minutes driving. 35 Choice two they can drive at 80 kilometres along Peka Peka Road to Paitawa then Rutherford Drive at 50 k‟s an hour, round three corners to Te Moana Road and onto the expressway. That is a total distance of 7.7 kilometres and eight minutes. 40 NZTA and KCDC have repeatedly said drivers heading south will choose to drive through Waikanae. That was the whole point of the partial interchange, but why would they choose to drive through Waikanae when it is quicker and easier to drive the other way. The 45 same drivers heading north from Wellington, Porirua and Paraparaumu will have to leave the expressway at Te Moana Road and make the

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same choice how to get home or to work or to deliver goods or animals or concrete. They will again choose the Rutherford Drive Peka Peka Road route.

5 Our quiet community has cycles, horses, pedestrians everyday, all day, they can be seen on the roads and we have no footpaths. The road will become a rat run for access to the expressway. Trucks, vans, commuters will be using the roads into the small hours of the morning because it will be the preferred route from the Peka Peka roundabout to 10 the Te Moana intersection.

We have asked repeatedly in submissions that our concerns be taken seriously and either a full interchange be reinstated or traffic calming measures used to encourage drivers to choose the Waikanae route. We 15 have asked at info days what happens to all the drivers going to and from Peka Peka, Te Kowhai, Te Hapua, Te Horo, Te Horo Beach, Pukenamu, Te Waka and Addington. All those drivers of cars, trucks and vans who will need to drive to and from Te Moana Road to access the expressway south. 20 We have been completely ignored. No plan has changed. We are told the drivers will all choose to go through Waikanae. We live here and we know that will not happen. If the expressway has to go ahead, please insist on a full interchange at Peka Peka. 25 Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Do you have anything to add?

30 MS STEPHENSON: Sure, I am going to keep my comments very brief. I mean it somewhat. I am a fairly new resident to the Kapiti Coast. I moved in February last year so just coming up for a year. I knew there were plans to build an expressway but not the extent of the plans and I just happened to be meeting with local residents on the last day that 35 submissions were due in August last year.

Their advice was to send off a very quick one page submission opposing it in full which I did. I have subsequently had further conversations and certainly would fully support Robyn in her 40 comments about the opposition in full and also the interchange. It is a little like being told that you are going to get cancer, but you get to choose which kind. If we are going to have it, then at least can we go through the four or five years of hassle of construction and everything else and then benefit from it in the long run. 45 [11.56 am]

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I felt that - and I am going to keep this very brief, but I felt that the best thing I can do was speak to - I don‟t come prepared with the extensive research and the years of preparation and briefs that so many of people, 5 the people that I have heard this morning, so I don‟t feel that I can speak with authority about the cost benefit analysis or the environmental impact or the community impacts as others have.

However, the reason that I moved up to the Kapiti Coast was, I 10 basically fell in love with a piece of land up on the Peka Peka Hills and my intention is to - well, I am in the early stages of developing a centre to practice a relatively new science and design discipline, called biomimickery, which essentially the art and science of emulating nature. The philosophy or the ethos of biomimickery is connection to 15 nature.

If you stand up in the land up in the foothills of Peka Peka and look down over the sweep of the country towards Kapiti it is beautiful and very still and you feel very connected to nature. I feel that - looking at 20 the diagrams, if I can make sense of the diagrams that I have seen, that in addition to the two lane, what will be the local road and the State Highway, there will also be the four land expressway, an additional two lanes that relate to the interchange, and the consequential noise and light and sound pollution that result from that. 25 So I don‟t have a lot more to say really other than that. I would support, certainly in full the comments that I have heard this morning. I have considerably empathy for people who I have heard speak this morning. I won‟t be as directly impacted as they will be, but I felt that it was 30 important to take a morning out of a very busy schedule and come and verbally and give voice to my opposition and to thank you for hearing our comments.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Thank you very much. Ms Connal? 35 MS CONNAL: Hello.

CHAIRPERSON: Good morning. Just when you are ready.

40 MS CONNAL: Okay, thank you.

My name is Dianne Connal. I live and run a small business in Kapiti. I oppose the proposed motorway and seek that the NZTA application be rejected. 45

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I personally would like to know from you how my coming here today will be measured and how much weight will be attributed to my speaking.

5 The proposed motorway is located approximately .5 of a kilometre as the crow flies to the east of my property, and what is at present a tranquil and picturesque community. I totally support the submission from Save Kapiti and other Kapiti groups and people who are opposed to the motorway. 10 I feel that they have already given your panel sound documentation, supported facts and evidence from specialised people to back up their submissions regarding the viability, and I am speaking on a personal level. 15 Noise, light and visual pollution are my primary concerns. I choose to speak because my beautiful beach community is going to be ripped apart by a RoNS motorway, and I don‟t feel that this solution to our roading has been thought through with any level of lateral thinking or 20 sensitivity to the residents or environment we live in.

I have been coming to Waikanae Beach since a child with my family and have lived here permanently since 1992. This area has been a haven for Wellingtonians wanting time out from their busy lives. It is a 25 quite peaceful community filled with the sounds of the sea and the now abundant birdlife thanks to the pest free Kapiti Island.

I choose to live away from a city because I prefer an unspoilt smaller town. I feel that if you look at all the facts, putting a four lane 30 motorway, and sometimes six at interchanges, through the middle of our very narrow community is not a sound answer to roading.

The motorway is economically unviable and environmentally destructive. Waikanae is particularly affected with the motorway being 35 so close to the beach and the huge structure of the interchange at Te Moana Road.

[12.01 pm]

40 This road which is going to cost millions of dollars is going to cut a mere 10 minutes off the trip to Wellington. I have been a commuter to Wellington, and I have also had regular travel to Wellington Hospital from the coast, 10 minutes is not nearly enough timesaving to justify such expense and destruction. 45

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The benefit/cost ratio for the road is now so low that it makes the building of the road a total unviable proposition. As a community and a country, we cannot afford these roads.

5 Where is the real benefit to our community? From history in other countries often the only businesses to prosper pop up near interchanges, these are mostly fast-food outlets. This would be the only place where it would be worth new businesses setting up. If they are set up near the Te Moana interchange it will totally change the Waikanae beach 10 community, or perhaps we will get a Warehouse of industrial area. Again, this is not a fit with our current community.

The Chamber of Commerce have stated that they believe that the motorway will turn Kapiti into an economic powerhouse. What exactly 15 does that mean? Mark Ternent – I hope I‟ve said that right, from the Chamber of Commerce stated in the Observer on 10 January, “that Kapiti businesses would not expand without this particular roading solution”. Why would a Kapiti business hold its community to ransom by saying that? It doesn‟t make sense that this would be the only thing 20 holding them back.

And where do their trucks go at the end of this motorway, they‟re going to hurtling down the country‟s roads faster and more dangerous than ever. 25 I would like to see statistics for this being the answer to better safety overall. Safety improvements can be achieved for a lot less money and destruction. This National government seems to be opposed to rail solutions for transport countrywide. We are not the only community 30 fighting against these plans. The Auckland and Gisborne communities are both being compromised because of short-sightedness by this government and its ministers. They too are being ignored. This government also says that this road is going to make more jobs in our community, but how? There will be construction jobs during the build, 35 then what?

If you drive on our present road at any time, apart from peak hour, say the other 21 hours of the day, there are very few hold-ups on it, unless you count the road works. At the time when the trucks are usually 40 going through our community, the road is practically empty. Getting them through is what this is all about, and so not really a good enough reason.

There appears to be inadequate overall planning or research for this 45 project. NZTA are going to work out many of the problems as they go.

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We could end up with a Novapay situation if this is their strategy. How many more huge blunders can we as a country afford?

The Chamber of Commerce think the road will be faster for emergency 5 services between Waikanae and Paraparaumu. Maybe they should have thought of that when we had everything ready to go for the western link road. We would have a completed road by now for these emergency services.

10 Use of asset sale money to finance the expressway, as suggested by the Prime Minister, John Key, further destroys its financial credibility. I was told in a letter from Stephen Joyce in 2010 that I should not worry about the money for the roads as it was already there for all the Ron‟s. This obviously is not true. Local traffic makes up over half the road 15 usage and could be dealt with more effectively and cheaply than by a motorway, ie western link road teamed with state highway one improvements and upgraded rail.

Geographical. I believe building on sand and peat carries great risks 20 and will be excessively expensive. Transit has not looked into just how hard this is going to be to any great extent, and how much it will push the costs up. Also, I‟m concerned about the rising sea levels and climate change effects in the coming years. These have not been properly accounted for. There has been evidence that building such a 25 large construction so close to sea level and the shoreline will be an added disaster in an emergency situation.

The motorway destroys 80 plus houses, which is distressing for each of these families, but it leaves 1400 within 200 metres of the road. Those 30 owners will involuntary pay the cost through loss of value of their properties and the standard of living in their day to day lives. These people are the huge losers.

[12.06 pm] 35 Noise and light levels will be a constant and continuing disturbance to the peaceful neighbourhoods. I personally value the sound of the sea from my home and the stars above me. With this motorway I will hear the cars on it and see the lights from it. I, as many Kapiti people, spend 40 many hours outside and outside will be noisier. It might be quiet enough for the standards proposed but I personally value the current noise level and I do not want it increased to an arbitrary standard. I might as well be in the middle of a city which is not my choice. I live in my community because I don‟t want to live in a city. 45

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We who live here have disadvantages, such as lower wages than the city and longer trips to hospital, but until now the benefits of the lifestyle and the quiet have outweighed the disadvantages. Biking up from Waikanae Beach to the shops, if they are still there, will mean that 5 I will now have to be part of the traffic coming off and on the interchange. I don‟t know how that will be but I can imagine it will make biking less pleasant and perhaps more dangerous. I don‟t know how you figure this one out but this road does not connect our communities as Nathan Guy is often heard saying. It slashes through 10 the heart of it and divides it. The two lane Western Link Road would have connected us but this destroys us.

Construction will add a further health destroying layer of noise, vibration, dust for residents in our community. It will hugely increase 15 the traffic that goes past my house. My house is on the road, Field Way, it comes past the Peka Peka, Rutherford Drive it becomes so, yes. And will put strain and wear on these roads. Has the increased maintenance cost been included in the Kapiti motorway costing?

20 Environmental. These are just a few points I just wanted to touch on. Desecration of significant Maori sites and disruption of dune buried bodies. Both Maori and Pakeha are buried in and around the urupa at Waikanae Beach. This potential benefit of this road is not sufficient to warrant their upheaval. 25 I am worried destruction of wildlife habitats and corridors and added dangers for wildlife. Our community has spent much of its own time and money supporting and improving the numbers of birds and wildlife in our community. We also have a marine reserve. 30 I currently am a member of a dune group that is helping to restore the native grasses on the Field Way dunes. Why bother giving my precious time for community enhancing activities if they will be compromised by the construction of this motorway. 35 The ambience of Kapiti, the presence of which is often foremost in the minds of many who choose to retire here or to bring up their families here, will be lost with this motorway. Why should the people of Kapiti lose this for very small gain for everyone except transport companies? 40 Noise will no doubt carry to my home. Issues of noise, both during construction and after the fact, are insufficiently dealt with. Vibration and its effects on my property are also insufficiently dealt with and could affect my home and standard of living, I am on a sandhill. 45

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Issues of wind blown sand during construction and the effects on properties is also insufficiently dealt with. My property is on a road that will take a significant increase in traffic during the construction of the motorway, this will lower my quality of life. 5 It is said that only a few people are opposed to the motorway but that is not true, many are. Many think they can‟t change it and we just have to put up with it but we don‟t and we won‟t. Groups such as the Chamber of Commerce have no right to say that they talk for the majority of the 10 community, they don‟t even talk for the majority of business. Their opinion is narrow and short sighted.

The residents of Waikanae Beach, as well as other (INDISTINCT 4.19) of Kapiti, are the big losers in the motorway plan. It really 15 separates us from the rest of the Waikanae community. The interchange over Te Moana Road is going to be a huge eyesore and cut Waikanae in half. At the moment you drive down Te Moana Road at sunset and see the sun going down behind Kapiti, you know you are nearly home then. This is one of my favourite visual pleasures, that will be gone. I feel 20 that if you look at all the facts putting a four lane motorway, and sometimes six at interchanges, through the middle of our community is not the answer.

Consultations on the Sandhills route was dishonest. Many people in 25 Kapiti believed that they were voting for a local Western Link Road in the initial survey, not this motorway. We never imagined that we would have to have something this unproductive and destructive in our community for so little benefit.

30 [12.11 pm]

There are statistics that state that the two lane link road across Waikanae River working with rail and improvements including flyovers on State Highway One are a 20 year plus traffic solution. Why 35 are we not using creative thinking and a bit of vision to sort out our roading solutions? As a community we count.

Thank you.

40 CHAIRPERSON: Just one question at page five you referred to evidence that buildings such as large construction close to sea level and shoreline will be an added disaster in an emergency situation, is that evidence that was given to this hearing?

45 MS CONNAL: I am not sure. I have heard specialists talking about it, I cannot actually remember his name?

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CHAIRPERSON: Well who, so that we can record it.

MS CONNAL: I will get that information for you. 5 CHAIRPERSON: But was it at the hearing or is it something in the newspaper or?

MS CONNAL: It was on a documentary. 10 CHAIRPERSON: Okay, thank you.

MS CONNAL: I will get that for you. Thank you.

15 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Ms Carter? Just when you are ready.

MS CARTER: Good morning Board Members. I do not wish to repeat the statements I have made in my written submission, but rather review the comments made in NZTA‟s rebuttal evidence in respect to some of the 20 matters I have raised in my submission.

I have not read all the rebuttal evidence or all the submissions unfortunately as I have only recently had a baby and I have not had the time. I have read the evidence of Robert Schofield and also the 25 submissions of Richard Percy of greater Wellington Regional Council, Emily Thomson of Kapiti Coast District Council and Sacha Walters of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.

My background is that I am a member of the New Zealand Planning 30 Institute and I have my own environmental planning consultancy and environmental connections. I have provided environmental planning and resource management advice to a number of organisations in respect of this Notice of Requirement and resource consent application by NZTA however this is my own personal submission. 35 I live in Reikorangi which is just out of Waikanae. I have three children, two of which attend the local school. Although I do not live near the proposed route I am deeply concerned about the potential significant adverse effects it will have, particularly in respect of the 40 coastal landscape, ecology, connectivity and social wellbeing.

I oppose the NOR and the proposed resource consents for this expressway in their entirety for the reasons I have set out in my submission. I do support the need to upgrade the existing state 45 highway, whether that be in its current route or a slightly varied route, but to the west and generally along the same alignment as the railway

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corridor. It is my assertion that the effects of the proposed expressway along the proposed western route are so significant that they cannot be adequately avoided, remedied, or mitigated.

5 I would like to turn now to Robert Schofield‟s rebuttal evidence dated October 2012. In para 10 he states “I remain of the view that the designation is required to enable the achievements of the project objectives in accordance with the requirement of the Resource Management Act”. 10 I list the project objectives and if you do not mind I would like to read them out. They are to (1) enhance interregional and national economic growth and productivity, to enhance efficiency and journey time, reliability from through the Kapiti district, Wellington CBD, key 15 industrial and employment centres, port, airport and hospital. To enhance safety of travel on State Highway One and appropriately balance the competing functional performance requirements of interregional and local traffic movements, recognising that modal and route change opportunities need to be provided that enable local 20 facilities and amenities in the Kapiti Coast to be efficiently accessed by developing and constructing a cost optimised new state highway alignment to expressway standards between McKays Crossing and Peka Peka and to manage the immediate and long term social, cultural, land use and other environmental impacts of the project on the Kapiti 25 Coast District and in its communities by so far as practicably avoiding, remedying or mitigating any such affects through the route and alignment selection, expressway design and conditions.

Finally to integrate the expressway into the urban form of Kapiti Coast 30 District by taking into account current and future plan settlement patterns in the route and alignment selection in the expressway design and conditions.

[12.16 pm] 35 I am unable to determine after reading the AEE and all the earlier background material published by NZTA prior to lodging the NOR and the associated consents, how Mr Schofield can categorically state that this particular route is required to achieve the project objectives in a 40 manner that it achieves the purpose and principles of the Resource Management Act. It is my opinion that the proposed designation route will conflict with the projects last three objectives.

From reading Mr Schofield‟s rebuttal evidence, he suggests that it is 45 not necessary for NZTA to investigate and address all the potential effects of the proposal. Instead, Mr Schofield suggests that an adaptive

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management regime and compliance with conditions is sufficient for a proposal of this size.

I refer to paragraph 26 of his October 2012 evidence, where he says “I 5 consider than an assessment of whether a project satisfies the relevant statutory requirements should be predicated on the basis that the project is assessed subject to compliance with conditions of consent and/or designation”.

10 In my opinion, the technical assessment of effects of the project in conjunction with the compliance of the proposed conditions enables an overall broad judgement to be made in regard to the purpose and principles of the RMA.

15 I disagree with the above statement of Mr Schofield. For a proposal of this size that will have significant wide ranging effects on communities in a district, it is imperative that the effects, and particularly in regard to sensitive, fragile or regionally and nationally significant landforms and ecology be considered prior to a decision being made. 20 Kapiti Coast District Council and Greater Wellington Regional Council in both their key issues reports, their submissions and their planning officer‟s evidence, have called for more information before the Board makes their decision. 25 Emily Thompson of KCDC calls for a social impact assessment to consider potential operational and construction effects on the social wellbeing of our community. Ms Thompson highlighted effects relating to, amongst other things, severance, connectivity, the ability of 30 vulnerable groups to use Te Moana Road and Kapiti Road interchanges, and effects on activity nodes, such as schools, sport venues and town centres.

In response, Mr Schofield says “I remain satisfied in relation to social 35 impacts that the sufficient assessment has been undertaken in accordance with the scale and nature of effects, and that the proposed conditions will address the areas of social effects that could reasonably and practically be managed in the construction of the project”.

40 I am unsure how conditions can address the significant effects relating to severance which will occur because of the massive expressway structure cutting through the district. In my view, none of the conditions proposed, including the construction of two interchanges mitigate the effect of this sufficiently, particularly when compared with 45 an alternative eastern option and the Western Link Road.

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Richard Percy, planner for Greater Wellington Regional Council, has highlighted in his evidence that the NOR and consent applications by NZTA was inadequate.

5 Mr Schofield, in his rebuttal evidence, acknowledges that “there are secondary consents that are required and these can be applied for at a later date, given the effects will be contained within the designation”. He then went on to say that “such consents would be of a minor nature”. 10 I find it disingenuous that not all consents have been submitted before the Board. An example of secondary consents that will need to be sought are associated with, for example, relocating the natural gas pipeline. This work is not minor in my view. The cumulative effect of 15 all activities have not been able to be adequately addressed by the community and by the Board.

Mr Percy, of Greater Wellington Regional Council, has also raised concerns about the insufficient assessment of potential effects on 20 hydrology. I note that this was raised by both GW and KCDC in their key issues report, and since those reports no new evidence has been produced by NZTA in respect of their concerns.

In response, Mr Schofield claims that an adaptive management regime 25 to monitoring and managing potential effects in these areas of uncertainty is appropriate. However, relying on monitoring does not provide the certainty to our community that the relevant provisions of the RMA, the proposed regional policy statement and the New Zealand coastal policy statement will be complied with. 30 I am concerned that there has been insufficient consideration of the matters raised by Ms Thompson and Mr Percy by NZTA, and that it is not the intent of the RMA to address such matters simply by conditions of consent. 35 One of the key elements of the RMA legislation is the obligations placed on the decision-making authority to have regard to iwi and affected parties. Management agreements between government agencies after the fact, denies the obligation to consult under the Act. 40 While agreed conditions can help achieve compliance with relevant statutory policies, they should not be relied upon in their entirety and/or in the absence of robust evidence.

45 [12.21 pm]

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I agree with Ms Thompson and Mr Percy, that until all concerns are addressed at this point, and that is prior to a decision being made, that it would be premature to conclude that a proposal will achieve the purposes and principles of the RMA. And throughout Mr Schofield‟s 5 rebuttal evidence, he continues to rely on the term “adaptive management regime” as a method of preventing or remedying effects, particularly in respect of effects on wetlands and general hydrology.

In paragraph 82 of Mr Schofield‟s rebuttal evidence he asks for, quote: 10 “some flexibility to reflect major rainfall and the uncertainty of some natural systems, for example wetland hydrology”. While I‟m not an expert in wetland hydrology, I‟m concerned that there has been insufficient investigation into the effects on aquifers and wetland from the construction of the expressway along this route, and that it is 15 insufficient to carry out these investigations post-decision, particularly in respect of uncertain ecosystems.

I agree with Mr Percy‟s statement that, quote: “where there is heavy reliance on management plans and adaptive management, the full 20 extent and magnitude of potential adverse effects should be understood at the time the decision is made on a resource consent, and that the applicant should have adequate measures to avoid, remedy, or mitigate those potential effects, in particular the availability of adequate areas that will offset mitigation.” 25 I note that Tim Porteous of Greater Wellington Regional Council has stated that NZTA has underestimated the total area of ecologically significant wetlands directly and potentially affected. Therefore, the proposed mitigation and offsetting regime is of a lesser area than what 30 is required. I‟ve also highlighted the use of offsetting in my written submission. I made the comment that even without the proposed expressway, the restoration of the Waikanae River margins and the old Waikanae treatment ponds would have occurred, as they both have management and restoration plans in place, and restoration is already 35 taking place there. Therefore, the mitigation works proposed by NZTA are not new works and should not be considered mitigation.

I also referred to KCDCs August 2012 submission which stated, and I quote: “artificial stormwater wetlands are not a replacement for 40 naturally forming wetlands and should not be used as mitigating the effect on natural wetlands.”

Mr Schofield justifies NZTAs position by saying that, quote: “most of the wetland directly affected by the proposal is degraded or in a highly 45 modified state.” Historical accounts I have read say that it was possible

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to paddle a canoe from Queen Elizabeth Park in Paekakariki all the way up to Ngarara Road north of Waikanae.

And while there is almost nothing left of the extensive wetland system 5 left on the Kapiti Coast, evidence suggests that the remaining wetlands are critical to protecting water quality in our rivers and streams and providing important habitat for native flora and fauna. Just because the wetlands and general landscape is degraded, is no reason to allow further destruction. If there is an option to avoid adverse effects in our 10 wetlands we should be choosing that option.

I am thinking of future generations in particular when I discuss hydrology. It‟s effects on aquifers and wetlands from modifying water courses to the extent proposed may be delayed by many years. 15 It is also my opinion that there was insufficient analysis and consideration of the alternative routes, and this surprised me, particularly given the project objectives to manage the long term social, cultural land use and other environmental impacts of the project on the 20 Kapiti Coast district and its communities.

The MCA used to access the relevant factors applying to alternatives routes was, in my opinion, incomplete. It appears that Mr Schofield in his evidence in paragraph 145, when he was rebutting Ms Walter of the 25 New Zealand Historic Places Trust, contradicts one of the reasons given for deciding on the western route, and that is the presence and effect on existing residential development along the eastern route.

When discussing the expressway in the location of the Takamore 30 wahitapu, Mr Schofield states, quote: “that in determining appropriateness when assessing the application under Part 2 of the Act, that there were limited options for avoiding or mitigating adverse effects because of the residential development that had been built along several sections of the roading corridor established in the 1950s, 35 including Te Moana Road to the Waikanae River section.” Yet in paragraph 186 of Mr Schofield‟s rebuttal evidence he states that, and I quote: “the ability to upgrade state highway to expressway standards is severely inhibited by the large number of properties along the road and rail corridor, which would have to be either acquired or would have to 40 have alternative access roads constructed.”

I have always supported the proposed design put forward by James Lundy on behalf of the Kapiti Coast District Council, which was a mixture of following the railway line corridor and the existing state 45 highway. I find the argument put forward by NZTA in declining to go ahead with the eastern option based on the number of properties

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directly affected to be floored, and while NZTA state that the eastern option had had the greatest number of properties affected and the western option had the least properties affected, NZTA were not taking into accounts effects beyond those properties which had to be 5 purchased.

[12.26 pm]

When KCDC sent public notices of the NOR for the Western Link 10 Road which follows a similar road to the NOR for the expressway, it identified 2,070 properties who were either directly adjoining or were within close proximity. Under NZTA‟s consultation that number halved.

15 I support the statement made by James Lundy in his evidence that quote “residential sections of the highway in Waikanae had already anticipated a four lane national arterial by being set back in preparation for the widening and that a route can be struck through Paraparaumu that avoids all dwellings. Whilst effects go beyond the road 20 requirement itself, but these are properties that already sit within effects area of a national road and rail corridor”.

I note that Mr Schofield dismisses this assertion without any real discussion or assessment of the effects and instead focuses on numbers 25 of directly affected properties. This in my view is why the MCA on the alternative road is incomplete. Mr Schofield suggests instead that Mr Lundy appears to have underestimated property impacts arising from the requirements to provide a separate legal road access and from constructing interchanges at Paraparaumu and Waikanae. 30 When reviewing Mr Lundy‟s original concept designs he prepared for KCDC I note that the interchanges at Waikanae and Paraparaumu mainly affected commercial properties which could have easily accommodated such design and would have benefited the urban design 35 and urban edge of both Paraparaumu and Waikanae Townships.

In terms of the access for properties options for upgrading the existing state highway to an expressway standard included following the rail corridor which would have avoided the need to create separate 40 accesses. This design also protected the community and landscape cohesion by keeping the rail and road infrastructure together.

In conclusion I have touched on only a couple of areas in my oral submission that are of most concern to me. As I have mentioned, I 45 have not been able to spend as much time as I would have liked in preparing my submissions. I have been actively involved in planning

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processes on the Kapiti Coast for the last decade and I am passionate about the future of Kapiti.

I am concerned like everyone else about the number of people involved 5 in accidents along the state highway through Kapiti and I am also aware of the need to ensure people‟s livelihoods by enabling efficient transport routes into Wellington. I believe that the construction of the Western Link Road in conjunction with an appropriately designed eastern expressway will achieve the objectives for this project while 10 protecting and enhancing Kapiti‟s town centres and increasing local connectivity.

I ask the Board to decline both the Notice of Requirement and all resource consent applications and to recommend to NZTA that they 15 immediately fund the amount originally agreed the Western Link Road and investigate the eastern route for an expressway.

Thank you.

20 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. I take it from your last two paragraphs your comments there about eastern expressway that you accept State Highway One needs to be an expressway?

MS CARTER: Yes. 25 CHAIRPERSON: Okay, thank you. Mr Sisarich? Perhaps come along one so you are in front of the microphone if you would not mind because this is all recorded and typed up somewhere else.

30 MR SISARICH: I am following my daughter Anna. This is some comments on the formal submission that we have already made, but I have not brought with me copies of what I am about to say.

CHAIRPERSON: Well it will all be recorded so. 35 MR SISARICH: Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity of being here today. I speak on behalf of a joint submission, my wife and myself in making our submission we were told to avoid being emotive and to stick to the cold hard facts so, but here today I really want to speak 40 from our heart because we have already dealt with the cold hard facts in our written submission.

In my view it is impossible to be dispassionate about this issue and both my wife and I have never felt so passionate about a proposal as we 45 do about this. It breaks our heart to contemplate what may happen in this most beautiful part of Waikanae. We live at 23 Prairie Road in one

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of the first Lockwood homes built in Waikanae. The original owners who built the house christened it Sunshine Hill because the house sits on top of a sand hill. It is one of the high points in Prairie Road. We believe it has associations with a former Maori settlement. 5 [12.31 pm]

Facing west we look over unspoilt bush and wetland to the Takemore Urupa and then beyond that to Kapiti Island. It is an unspoilt rural 10 outlook. In the vicinity are river walks, bush walks, cycle tracks and other pathways that enable the beauty of the surrounding area to be fully appreciated. We simply love living where we are and living in this community.

15 We are woken each morning by the sounds of the dawn chorus, as the abundant birdlife welcomes in the new day. In the evening as the sun goes down the evening chorus starts up as birdlife prepares to settle down for the evening. We feel that we are living in a paradise, totally surrounded by beauty and the magnificence of God‟s creation. 20 We have done our homework in purchasing the Puriri Road property. We have taken care to find out where the proposed new motorway would be built. The designated route had been in place for some years and people in the area had made their decision on the basis of that long 25 established designation.

What is now proposed renders so much of the earlier extensive consultation nugatory, and if last minute changes to the expressway proposal are adopted we suddenly find ourselves at 23 Puriri Road with 30 a grandstand view of this gigantic, monolithic concrete structure. In addition, because of our raised position we will have the benefit of full sound effects.

Instead of the dawn and evening chorus we would be awoken in the 35 morning by the sounds of heavy motor vehicles whirring along the expressway, and I have heard today earlier from some of the other submitters there are real concerns about noise and the impacts that that can have on wellbeing and health. We will try to sleep at night with the same sounds ringing in our ears, not a delightful bedtime lullaby by any 40 means.

The of course is not to mention the disruption and company of sounds that the construction period is going to give rise to. In addition, air pollution will add to the mix. 45

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My wife and I have so much enjoyed the rich beauty of the area we are presently surrounded by. To think that that may all be destroyed and replaced by a concrete jungle of expressway saddens our heart. To us it really is an act of environmental vandalism that will harm a significant 5 section of the community.

People‟s lives are already being thrown into confusion and as the proposal proceeds the dislocation and division caused in people‟s lives and in the community are going to become more and more evident. 10 One final matter that I would like to refer to relates to the process of consultation that the proposal has given rise to. I was a lawyer working as a legal advisor in government for 30 odd years. So I understand the importance of consultation, that is a fundamental principle of natural 15 justice and any judicial review looks carefully at those particular aspects of any decision-making process.

I am not convinced that principles of natural justice have been well served in this regard in relation to this matter of consultation. The 20 longer the proposals were looked at, he more confused the whole process of consultation seemed to become, and many people in the community were totally confused of where the process was at.

In particular, intervention at the 11th hour resulted in two new 25 proposals being forward that altered the original Western Link Road designation and moved the expressway to the eastern side of the Takamore urupa. While that may have been the result of some background deal with iwi, the effect of this relatively small alteration to the route is going to have major impacts on a significant number of 30 people.

Whereas the Western Link Road designation was still going to cause disruption, at least visual impacts were hugely mitigated by the fact that the link road would be hidden out of sight, behind a natural barrier of 35 sand hills that run from river down towards the golf course.

[12.36 pm]

In an effort to appease affected landowners the NZTA brought forward 40 the two alternative routes that on the face of things indicated NZTA was being generous in offering alternatives.

We own a second-hand shop in Newtown which is called Hobson‟s, I suggest that the two options proposed by NZTA could also be called 45 “Hobson‟s”, because the choice that those two proposals provide, is in our view, of “no choice”.

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In our submission it is simply a ploy that pays lip service to the principle of “proper consultation”.

5 I wish to finish these comments by referring to something I read recently about what is happening in Singapore. In an article in the recent New Zealand January Listener, it comments that in both Singapore and Seoul in Korea, conservation and restoration are coming into vogue. In Seoul, one of the most impressive urban renewal projects 10 is the Cheonggyecheon project, and there they are building an 8.4 kilometre manmade river and replacing a former highway running through the city.

Perhaps one day in the future, if this expressway proceeds, we will all 15 have the pleasure of converting it into a river.

In the meantime, could I suggest that a photographic record of what we are about to destroy be made for the sake of posterity, otherwise our grandchildren will never believe that we could‟ve been so short-sighted 20 to have allowed the destruction of this corner of Eden.

Thank you, for listening, thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Thank you very much. 25 MR SISARICH: Thank you, sir.

CHAIRPERSON: Mr Benge, just when you are ready, thank you.

30 MR BENGE: Thank you.

This oral presentation seeks to augment and clarify my earlier written submission, which I understand you have read. As I am no expert on anything of any technical significance to these proceedings, I will be 35 offering you simply a view from the ground. The perspective of a Kapiti local of some 35 years, who finds himself unwillingly swept up in this process and who has had to develop a more informed view.

As my written submission indicates, my wife and I live off State 40 Highway 1, at the southern entrance of the proposed expressway, immediately north of the disused restaurant on State Highway 1, just north of Leinster Avenue.

We are members of Shalom, a low key Christian community which was 45 begun by four local families in the early 1980s and has since grown to incorporate six families and a seventh community owned property

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divided into three flats and let to tenants. So we have a total of nine households within our communities‟ grounds. Two of our community homes border right on the expressway designation. They will be situated only about 50 metres from the new road. All of us will be 5 within 200 metres of the designation.

As NZTA plans will remove our ability to drive onto the highway, it must put in a new slip road to connect those of us bordering State Highway 1 with the highway end of Leinster Avenue. This new road, 10 one lane in each direction, will run alongside the four lane expressway, which in turn will run beside the three lanes of what is currently State Highway 1. We are looking at a total nine lanes of roading, beginning just outside Shalom‟s truncated boundary.

15 As you probably know, Shalom is a Hebrew word translated “peace” in English, though that translation greatly thins the fullness of meaning “present” in the Hebrew. Shalom plays a rich harmonic cord made up of a range of notes, safety, wellbeing, happiness, health, prosperity, rest, welfare, wholeness and harmony, amongst others. Judaism has a 20 strong notion of repairing – healing the world. The state of Shalom is the result of that repair, that healing.

[12.41 pm]

25 Many of the submissions you have heard seek the Shalom of Kapiti, and it‟s my prayer that members of this Board will also be bringers of shalom, into this complex and contested issue of the expressway.

I understand that Board members have made a visit to our area, though 30 I am not sure whether you came all the way into our community grounds or only walked along our main driveway off State Highway 1, bordered by stately large trees. This driveway is the portion of our community land required by NZTA for the expressway. Unlike many of our neighbours, who will lose their homes to the expressway, we 35 will be left bordering it.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the Shalom community‟s physical environment, is its simultaneous nearness to State Highway 1 and the palpable peace and quiet within the communities‟ grounds. 40 Over the years we have had consistent expressions of amazement by visiting trades‟ people and friends, wondering at how a site so close to the highway could be so quiet and tranquil. “It‟s so peaceful here” they say to us.

45 Now we might be tempted to explain this peaceful atmosphere in terms of our being a Christian community, but I have visited the properties of

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Buddhist, new age and agnostic friends up the road, and their environments exude a similar tranquillity. Though we can all hear the highway traffic in the distance, the length of our driveways, our much love mature trees and bush and the at grade sighting of State Highway 5 1, combine to defuse the traffic noise. The noisy bustling world outside whispers to us, it doesn‟t shout.

This peacefulness is the painstaking result of many years of shaping our physical environments. The greenery and birdlife we now treasure 10 so highly are the results of the labours of love of those who became before us and those who have been here for decades. Properties like these can‟t be termed “lifestyle blocks” akin to hairstyles or shoe fashions, rather they are “way of life blocks” whose owners have invested themselves wholeheartedly to build and create something 15 intergenerational of sustainable and natural beauty and fruitfulness.

Homes here, you will have observed, are generally not opulent or even contemporary, and they are not inhabited by people who buy and sell for a profit every few years. The properties I know of, in my area, are 20 life works, investments of the heart. This is why NZTAs sudden bombshell in November 2010, to run an expressway through these properties, purchased safely distant from the long designated Western Link route, has been so particularly shocking.

25 It is why everyone I know of in the affected Leinster Avenue and Main Road South Area, feels so deeply betrayed and disenfranchised by this proposal. And it is why so many of us feel so insulted by the shallow bland assumptions of the Transport Agency and their negotiators that some quantity of money can satisfactorily compensate for the seizure of 30 these life projects. Or in Shalom communities‟ case, the stripping from us of the very natural buffer, valued at a mere few thousand dollars which makes Shalom a possibility here.

I‟d like just to interpolate here, a response to Mr Apeldoorn‟s question 35 to an earlier comment – an earlier submitter, related to “relative waiting of different properties”, you know, some will be affected by this route, others will be affected by that route, how do you wait these – can you wait them.

40 And my thought when I heard you ask that question and the response: It is true that the people near State Highway 1 have bought, knowing the route that was there. And what that actually means, is that they have allowed for mitigation within their properties.

45 [12.46 pm]

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So in our situation we thought of about, okay, if the State Highway 1 will extend closer to our property, takes an extra lane or two, we‟re perfectly able to accommodate that because of the nature of the property that we have. The problem with the current proposal is that it 5 drives through quite small properties often which have had no opportunity to consider or allow for mitigation and that‟s how I would see, you know, that issue.

Others like Mr Graham Bathgate have testified here to the offhand 10 careless way in which NZTA has notified and dealt with affected residents. My own impressions are similar to those conveyed earlier to this hearing by Mr Ruben Blok and Ms Amanda Hager. NZTA seems to have been issued political directives to rush this through and from the outset they have been scrambling to get up to speed. 15 Again and again NZTA has made airy and false assertions which could so easily have been corrected with just a little testing or research. I will cite two examples. Others in these hearings have referred to how, when NZTA first mooted the western link designation for their 20 expressway at the time when locals were being called to vote on their preferred route, its spokespeople told us that the new road would run below existing local streets wherever possible. But Peter Knight of Kapiti Coast District Council advised my wife in a discussion years before that the high water table in our district generally precluded new 25 roading being built under current roads. The Agency‟s subsequent design show that they eventually discovered this, something local experts could have advised them about in a two minute email or phone call.

30 It seems to me simply not good enough to present such a significant proposal in a light which the smallest amount of checking could show was false. In fact a strong case can be made that the whole initial presentation of the western link route option for the expressway deviated so profoundly from the eventual design that there is no basis 35 for NZTA‟s claim that more Kapiti ratepayers voted for this proposal.

Another more recent example. Alliance staff have told Main Road South residents at public meetings that they expect the new expressway to reduce not increase noise levels on our properties. Last year Shalom 40 Community asked for acoustic readings to be taken on one of our properties closest to State Highway 1. The readings taken over five days by Marshall Day Acoustics for NZTA registered what its report termed “a relatively low 47 decibel average”. Eight to nine decibels lower than Marshall Day predict they will be at their selected future 45 point of 2026 on the basis of their traffic projection modelling. The

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Marshall Day report offered no predictions of noise levels prior to 2026.

Since we received this report we have heard no further assurances that 5 the completed expressway will deliver a reduction of current noise levels. But we are left with the knowledge that all NZTA has committed itself to do is to keep traffic noise levels below the current permitted category A limit of 64 decibels. In other words the expressway can add more than 15 decibels to current noise levels in 10 Shalom Community without any mitigation being required. We are not looking forward to that.

These are just two examples of why I have gained the impression of an organisation scrambling to catch up with the process they set in motion. 15 After a letter I wrote on this topic to a local paper, someone I didn‟t know phoned me to express his support and told me about exemplary work the Agency had done some years before in Christchurch. I wanted to believe him. I don‟t want to conclude that what we have experienced here, which submitters like Mark Harris have reported in 20 such detail, is normal practice for NZTA. That is why I consider it likely that political pressure has forced the Agency to abandon best practice and handle this project in such a lamentable way.

Well, I know you have heard many such expressions of protest and you 25 may have still more to hear. I would like to turn now to my perspective as a member of the wider Kapiti community when we first learned of the expressway proposals. I‟m interested particularly in the initial three route options presented for local citizens to vote on.

30 [12.51 pm]

As you have heard previously there was vigorous local debate over the brief period NZTA gave us to discuss the options prior to voting on this matter. For myself, my wife and I think many other locals the key 35 merit of voting for the Western Link Road was that it purported to take fewer homes than the other options did.

As I said earlier we had been told by NZTA that a Western Link routed expressway would run beneath existing roading wherever possible so 40 concerns about community severance seem to us of lesser weight than the injustice and suffering inflicted on folk who have bought homes with no warning of this possibility.

At this stage we had no inkling that the Western Link routed 45 expressway was going to change its southern entrance to head through our own Shallong (ph 1.04) community property. The decision we

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faced was simply a matter of ordinary communal compassion for others afflicted by these proposals and our voting was governed by the simple ethical principle of doing harm to the smallest number of others.

5 It has been an irony that after voting for and winning that option we found the route shifted under our feet and suddenly some 30 further homes and/or properties in Raumati south alone were threatened. Since that early stage my thinking has evolved considerably as I have struggled to keep up with the debate as well as run a small business. I 10 have noted and been educated by James Lundy and Graeme McIndoe‟s submissions about the massiveness and non-permeability of the expressway design and the consequent permanent damage it will inflict on the community of the Kapiti Coast.

15 I have learned how people like Ruben Blok could see from the outset how crippling to Kapiti a Western Link route for the expressway would be. I have been helped to think differently about the future by submitters like Julie-Anne Genter, Silvia Zuur, and Mandy Hager so I now recognise that there are additional legitimate matters to consider 20 besides the suffering of those whose homes or surroundings would be taken from them for the expressway.

Nevertheless I continue to feel that this inquiry ought to have a particular care for the people most affected by this proposal. That a 25 huge demand should be placed on the applicant to justify why these people suffering is unavoidable and essential. When NZTA released the multi-criteria assessment it used in deciding on its current proposed southern entrance rather than that of the Western Link route, I was appalled that no particular additional weighting seemed to be given to 30 the social impact on local human beings, as in the table shown there. Ms Lindsay‟s statement critiques the lop-sidedness of NZTA‟s approach in much more detail.

The more I have considered this whole issue, the more apparent two 35 things have become to me. First unlike the previously consented Western Link Road the expressway has been designed to meet regional needs, not local ones. I am completely unconvinced by local business advocates for the expressway and I have spoken to other local business owners who agree with me and who express real concerns about their 40 businesses future viability.

The expressway will obviously and significantly increase the flow of through traffic and reduce local business interactions with that traffic. Levin and Whanganui will benefit. Paraparaumu and Waikanae will 45 not. While I am all for the prosperity of the regions, I am not interested in pretending local benefits which simply will not materialise.

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Other submitters have pointed out emphatically the challenges the expressway will present for local drivers, particularly the large cohort of elderly which is such a notable part of our localities demographic. 5 The less popular the feeders on and off the expressway, the less value the expressway will offer to locals. The more popular they are, the more local problems will face endeavouring to deal with the ramifications of increased traffic on and off local conduits like Te Moana and Kapiti Roads. It is a lose lose situation. 10 So it seems to me clear that the state has come to Kapiti with its expressway plans and said “lie back and think of New Zealand”. We should weigh that demand to be sure, but we cannot pretend that this has been proposed for the benefit of the Kapiti Coast. 15 [12.56 pm]

That was what the Western Link Road was for and that‟s why I have come to see increasingly clearly that a combined western link major 20 local road and an upgraded State Highway 1 meet both local and regional needs and so represent a far better real solution for Kapiti than the proposed expressway.

Secondly, just because Kapiti has some significant traffic issues doesn‟t 25 mean we should welcome any old proposed solution. The expressway is a unilateral package deal and a very inflexible one. As Chris Mitchel has said earlier it is a flatpack off-the-shelf design. Its implementation would damage and distort the wairua of the district through which it travels. What makes Kapiti, Kapiti, the natural coastal environment 30 which has drawn people here from north and south, mainly from cities, to live more humanly and sustainably within the special natural environment distinguished and watched over by the world renowned native bird sanctuary off our coast. What makes Kapiti, Kapiti will be permanently damaged, crippled by the intrusion of the expressway 35 through its centre.

In the ancient stories of Israel a baby is born on the same day that the Ark of the Covenant is stolen from them by their enemies. In lament for this national catastrophe he is named Ichabod, the glory has 40 departed. If the expressway goes ahead Kapiti could name it Ichabod. What has made Kapiti glorious has been taken from us.

I see this particularly in my locality at the southern entrance and in Waikanae as I outline in my submission. We face the prospect of a 45 massive domineering bridge over the Waikanae River and a towering grandiose interchange upon Te Moana Road which will, as I say,

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degrade an attractive semi-rural connecting road into a noisy urbanised traffic conduit hosting a monstrous interchange structure. And so this is why I see the expressway as a Procrustean bed for Kapiti.

5 In Greek myth the brigand Procrustes seized travellers and forced them to fit his iron bed. If they were too long for the bed he cut off their feet. If they were too short he used stretching torture tools to elongate them to fit. Like Henry Ford, you can any colour of car as long as it‟s black. This is what NZTA has offered Kapiti. With an expressway design you 10 must be able to travel 100 kilometres per hour throughout with the full width of four traffic lanes plus median barriers plus adjacent cycleways. This severely restricts the routes ability to bend, to navigate around existing structures and makes introducing and removing traffic on and off the expressway a major problem. 15 These inherent limitations result, amongst other things, in more homes being destroyed or abutting the expressway, few opportunities to enter or exit the expressway and huge ramparts across Kapiti where local roads are intersected. It also means that where interchanges occur they 20 must necessarily be monstrous.

Submitter after submitter has made the point that NZTA has not justified the necessity of an expressway through the middle of our community and has certainly not offered any comparison between that 25 option and a combined local road and refurbished State Highway 1.

Now, I‟m sure most locals can imagine the appeal for a national transport agency of optimal traffic flows and maximum traffic efficiency. This is what NZTA feels the expressway offers. But while 30 it is focused, fixated with these traffic dreams, it loses focus on the fact that this shiny new motorway design with its elegant flyover videos needs to materialise and find its place within the pre-existing real world. In this case the straightened topography of the long settled and developed Kapiti Coast. It needs to respond and adapt to people, 35 neighbourhoods, community amenities and vulnerable natural areas. To adapt Jesus‟ words roading is made for people not people for roading. But the expressway specifications won‟t, can‟t change. The Kapiti Coast must be stretched or chopped to fit. Procrustes would have been proud. 40 [1.01 pm]

As my submission concludes the expressway concept is lazy, ill fitting, backward thinking, imposed on a community which deserves much 45 more responsive human scale environmentally sensitive and economical solutions. I have come to see that the only conceivable

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sighting for an expressway design is along the current State Highway One route, but a much better local and regional solution would be to reconsider the consented major local road on the Western Link Route and upgrade State Highway One. 5 So I urge the Board to reject this poorly conceived package deal imposed on Kapiti by declining the current application.

I have at the bottom of my email a quotation from C S Lewis, “we all 10 want progress, but if you‟re on the wrong road progress means doing an about turn and walking back to the right road, in that case the one who turns back soonest is the most progressive”.

Thank you for hearing me. 15 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr Benge.

Thank you very much. We will take the adjournment, we will recommence at 1.45 pm please. 20 ADJOURNED [1.02 pm]

RESUMED [1.48 pm]

25 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Mrs Hinkley? Just when you‟re ready.

MRS HINKLEY: Good afternoon. My name is Dale Hinkley, and I‟m thankful to have the opportunity to speak to you today.

30 I have a professional background, I taught business fundamentals, research in business psychology and became a management and research consultant, working for myself. I have a Masters Degree in Management and Psychology.

35 I retired about five years ago to live in Waikanae, having spent many years here on weekends and holidays, renewing myself from the rat race.

I‟m not one of the people directly affected by the expressway, being 40 just on the eastern outside edge of tolerance, I hope. But all of us in the area and Waikanae where I live, I feel are still affected too much overall.

However, in reading the Board of Inquiry documentation, I have 45 become more than a little concerned about flooding issues. Today I‟m

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going to make representation of my submission using the same topics in order of the previously given one.

I will occasionally refer to material in other submissions to provide 5 more up to date detail or context. I oppose the application in full.

Planning (INDISTINCT 4.16) are not best fit for purpose. In my introduction here I say that I want to say that I agree, we need to sort out our transportation difficulties. Good planning demands if placement 10 and subsequent design of new transport infrastructure meets the needs of Kapiti and New Zealand and is the best fit for the purpose. As I understand it, the RMA demands that a genuine analysis of alternatives has taken place. Complex issues are involved in such a huge and expensive project. These have to be identified and compared. For 15 example, while I‟m not an expert, but engineering measures, diagrams, cost and environmental, differences in terrain, water levels, soil, et cetera, urban form and social variables.

[1.51 pm] 20 I would have thought that alternatives need to have the same type and extent of research and information applied to them all, or no-one could ever do a reliable job of decision making. Obviously there can be no political interference and no bias in decision making. 25 Understanding and weighing up all the issues so that the best alternative can be decided on takes time. I don‟t think that there was enough time in 2009. In my opinion it was careless, at best, to decide a route in a few months, and with the pressure of political imperatives. A 30 decision without all the requisite information and without including the 2009 Western Link Road package alternative and subsequent designs and submissions around it – for example the KCDC and James Lundy et cetera – is open to serious questioning in my opinion.

35 As a result of all this, over the next three years information that was really needed earlier had to be backfilled in. During these years there were public consultations, and I found the pictures and models – for example, of bridges and off ramps et cetera – were inadequate and confusing, or would be “done later”, and I was too frequently met with 40 the answer “I don‟t know” – for example, about water and noise.

Mitigation was beginning to be talked about. This was for the route that the majority of people I met at the consultations, and myself too, thought was chosen unfairly. I saw that this was distressing for many 45 people. We felt we were consulting on the wrong road, on the wrong route – a fait accompli, in other words. To me this is a critical point.

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I think with more time taken at the beginning perhaps we could have found a win:win, a design that better fits all the key objectives, including costs. A design that was honestly and transparently chosen. 5 Then whatever happened after that people would have needed to have been treated fairly. wherever the route was in regard to loss of property, real mitigation and so on.

I think that there is a difference to the pain that people feel if they can 10 see a fair an honest process has been undertaken. From my experience over these years, and from my attendance at consultations, discussions with others and reading of material before and during the Board of Inquiry, I do not think that there has been a fair an honest selection of the route so that all that followed has been contaminated by this. 15 I would like to finish this introduction by making two more comments.

Firstly, I feel unsettled by these types of statements from NZTA – for example, from the day 1 transcript, “the history of the project is 20 probably reasonably well know. It‟s a project which has a background of significant planning, indeed the route that has been chosen, more or less, is the route that has been planned for roading purposes through Kapiti over more than 50 years”.

25 In my opinion there is a not so subtle implication in this statement, and left out is everything to do with the fact that since the mid-1990s it was agreed that this designation was to be for a local road only.

Secondly, in my experience it is very difficult, time consuming, costly 30 and stressful, to be put in the position of having to try and fight the juggernaut of the NZTA with all the government millions behind it. For many of us it is not really possible to do justice to a submission for the Board of Inquiry when we are up against the stress of what happened in the route decision process, and dealing with literally 35 thousands of pages of material.

I am a grandmother. I like to travel and play with the grandkids, not write submission.

40 The original roading package for Kapiti. Briefly, the local Western Link Road package was the status quo. It was approved and set to go. It had been planned over a long period for 10 plus years, and a lot of money and time had been spent. It had the approval of key stakeholders. This would take 40 to 75 percent of traffic off State 45 Highway 1, and keep local traffic from being mixed in with passing traffic. The planning and design was best practice – I just have some

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references there, Save Kapiti planning/design submissions, evidence from Julie-Anne Genter and Bianca Begovich and Lewis on day 24.

It was stated to be the best overall solution for the next 50 years – and 5 there is a KCD submission given to you I think by Jonathan Gradwell. I think you have those documents.

[1.56 pm]

10 The Western Link package satisfied objectives for safety improvements, economics, traffic flow, connectivity and the KCDC planning objectives. Facilities were built or planned, an eco- subdivision was planned around having the western link road package.

15 People did due diligence when buying a house and found out where they could safely live in peace and quiet, therefore there had to be a very good reason to dispense with this package and also to not properly research those submissions by KCDC in option 4. Ratepayers paid $280,000 for this, as I understand. 20 Next topic, design arbitrarily dispensed with. This is about the process. Arbitrary can be defined – determined by chance or impulse and not by necessity, reason or principle. This is what it seemed like to me when I came back from holiday in the latter part of 2009 and found that 25 everything had changed. The western link road and all that went with it was gone.

This is a quick rough guide to the process, which I know doubt you‟ve heard about by now. We had a RoNS situation, and our question is 30 that, is it a RoNS? A route is being decided in a hurry, NZTA workshops and investigative work took place in the latter half of 2009, there was a first survey, et cetera. The eastern and western options were looked at, and the eastern was preferred and also advised on that it was the best option. 35 Experts advised against, including the western link road designation. There was a local panic of some who wanted the road to be in the west. A meeting locally with MP Minister Stephen Joyce, he ordered the western link road to be put in. 40 There were more other NZTA workshops, one on which there was a moderate quote “concern about a possible judicial review” mentioned by MacKay on day 22. There was a revised consultation brochure with three options now. There were remarks in that about unidentified 45 people wanting the western link road expressway option put in, and questionable statements in the brochure, which I‟ll get to later.

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There was a telephone survey, see below. And two reports put out on these surveys. NZTA workshops and then the decision in December 2009, and I‟ll just refer you there to some prior submissions by Harris, 5 MacKay, Beechey. I feel sure that you will compare them to what you have been told by the NZTA.

So looking at all of this I ask, was the process fair and transparent and could/should there have been a judicial review? I‟m not an expert, but 10 I have serious doubts.

Now, just coming to the views of the public on the alternative routes. The applicant states that the results of the public consultation were used in decision making. I have a real problem with the decision to a) ask 15 the public to vote on this route; and b) to do it at a time when there was not enough information. I say this because I believe that any good leader, any professional person in authority does not go to the public for answers that are likely to be self-serving and not well-informed, particularly at this early stage. 20 In fact, this decision would have been better to have been made transparently by a group of unbiased professionals, and I wonder if the NZTA Board was with all the pressures that they had on them. As submitters before me have said, all of the alternatives needed to be 25 identified and all should have had the same type and extent of research and subsequent facts supplied to them. I think it has been shown by now that this did not happen, and therefore there was no reliable and valid job consulting the public and in subsequent decision making.

30 It seems that there is not much use taking too much time on the survey for the public given what I have just said. These documents do show, however, a good example of the unfortunate ways I have found NZTA to work.

35 To look at the Colmar Brunton survey, I have to take into account the NZTA extended consultation brochure sent out prior to this survey. The reason for this is that it is part of the Colmar Brunton survey in that a) it was in the public domain prior to the survey and is likely to have influenced opinion; and b) it was referred to and used in the survey 40 itself.

[2.01 pm]

So looking at the appendix which I have here, with the consultation 45 extended brochure, which is the first two pages here I want to refer to now. In summary, the first two pages of the brochure do not provide

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clarity about the issues. Some statements in the third paper in there, which is the questions at the end of the brochure, are either biased or loaded or misleading or ultimately untrue.

5 So taking the first two pages. On page 1 it states, “The community‟s desire for a new option using the Western Link Road”. This statement is confusing. Plans included in the document, which they talk about here are concept plans, as they say, at an early stage. They‟re not detailed plans. This means to me that I would be voting on a plan 10 which may have pertinent information left out, a plan which is a moving target. In research terms this threatens of the reliability and validity of the results.

On page 2 of this document, the second page in your appendices, the 15 respondents were asked to compare the three concept plans against the criteria the NZTA must use in deciding the preferred route. These criteria are assists economic development, assists safety and personal security, improves access and mobility, protects and promotes public health, ensures environmental sustainability, takes account of all 20 government and regional strategies.

In my opinion a respondent cannot do this unless they have information on the criteria, unless they have information. How do we know that these people replying to this brochure knew anything much about these 25 issues at all?

Now to the questions and answers on the final page. I assert that these questions and answers, placed at the end of the brochure, bias and invalidate the Colmar Brunton survey and also this extended 30 consultation itself. I think these problems are easy to spot. I‟ve numbered the questions in the appendix so it‟s easier for me to refer to them and for you to see them.

In question 1, the reasons that they say for including the third options 35 are vague. There‟s a statement that says, “Some residents requested another option” then later in the same paragraph you see that NZTA has “taken the community‟s views on board and included the western link option”. This “community” is now implied to be a larger number of people and, in my view, this is a loaded suggestion. 40 Question 3, the place of the KCDC fourth of option and what place did this fourth option have in this process? The answer I feel is misleading and it also has proved to be dishonest. They say that they appreciate the fourth option, which sounds to me to be patronising, and that “will 45 be considered” as “part of the consultation process”. It was not in fact

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considered. And I just say there it also shows poor biased survey design. Why wasn‟t this opinion put in?

Question 7 about four laning State Highway 1. I think the answer to 5 this is misleading because we have within the process the KCDC original Western Link Road package of amendments to State Highway 1 et cetera which is the real comparison. And the answer states that this State Highway 1 option did not improve local traffic options. Well, this is because talking about it just in that way in 10 isolation is misleading because the real Western Link Road option is omitted.

The option of improving State Highway 1, four laning where necessary and having the Western Link Road is the real comparison. They go on 15 to say the routes under consideration improve local traffic options. I think that Save Kapiti urban designers and many other submitters would seriously dispute this and I would say that the Western Link Road option does this a lot better.

20 In question 9, it asks, “Does the NZTA have a preference over the option?” And they say no. I wonder if this is disingenuous because from the way these questions and answers are presented I am not sure and also there was a political imperative.

25 [2.06 pm]

Question 11: How will you prevent the expressway from intruding on the community? I think this question and answer is very important. So how will they prevent the expressway from intruding into the 30 community? The answer is, the impact of interchanges on the community could be minimised by lowering sections of the expressway below ground level and keeping interchanges as small as possible. This is misleading and ultimately untrue.

35 Now, to the Colmar Brunton survey question itself, and the questions are in the appendix. Firstly, for many elementary text book reliability is the extent to which repeatedly measuring the same property produces the same result. Each survey question should mean the same thing to the respondents and to those administering the survey. So that if it was 40 repeated with the same people again the same answers would be obtained.

In terms of validity, validity is the extent to which a survey question measures what it‟s supposed to measure. In this case, what people 45 honestly thought was the best place for the expressway designation, but as you would know yourselves, I think it‟s common sense that people

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can say one thing and think and then do something else. There are hundreds of examples of this in the literature on attitudinal research.

In this context an example is people who live near one road or have 5 relatives or friends who do, will be very likely to vote for the one further away, no matter what they think about which is best in terms of the objectives for Kapiti or New Zealand. So we run into difficulty straight away.

10 In a telephone survey where respondents are told they just need to spend two or three minutes, respondents need to be able to quickly understand simple questions. If you look at the questions in the Colmar Brunton questionnaire or the descriptions that go with the questions, I think these descriptions of the choices are too complex, they are too 15 hard to reliably keep in memory, to visualise and compare all three of them against each other without a diagram.

People may have thought they understood, but may not have, or they may not have remembered all the details when comparing them in their 20 heads. Importantly, 91% did not have the document close at hand, and how well do they know the roads that they‟re looking at to start with, the roads in this area? All of these impact on reliability and validity.

After 10+ years of discussion on the Western Link Road, the original 25 Western Link Road is likely to come to mind, and if we look at the description given in this quick survey, it does not appear to help out respondents at all because it doesn‟t have any specificity about which road they‟re talking about. The description of the eastern option has no mention of the local road, supporting roads, either. 30 Although there was a process in place to check that respondents understood the questions and there was an opportunity for them to be told to go away and look at the NZTA website if they didn‟t understand, my experience, including being a respondent to these types 35 of surveys, suggests that respondents have to be really motivated to state that they don‟t understand, to ask for this type of material to be repeated or to go away and do further checking.

As we all know, a telephone survey intrudes into the lives of people. 40 Therefore, ease of understanding the first time should be designed into the questionnaire at the start. People can also get impatient. I suggest most people want to get this type of survey over with quickly and don‟t want to think too much. We have no way of knowing if a few, none or many respondents really wanted to understand and remember all of 45 these descriptions.

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There were young people, from age 15, and older people in their 80s taking part in this survey. Possibly they could have had more difficulties with complex descriptions as above.

5 I would have thought that a good pilot study would have shown up the problems respondents would have had in understanding the verbal descriptions of each road and I don‟t understand why they were used as they were. Perhaps the designers of this thought that more people would have had the brochure with the diagrams in it, but in fact only 10 9% did, as Colmar Brunton say in their results.

I have designed a lot of surveys for the public sector and the only way to get good data, all other things being accurate and not biased, is to have more time and money to do face to face interviews with diagrams. 15 [2.11 pm]

I believe that even if you had a much smaller sample size, say 200 respondents properly randomly chosen, the data obtained would be 20 reliable and valid. It may be that NZTA did not want to pay for a better survey design.

The survey results. It goes without saying that the results of the survey and of the revised public consultation are going to be compromised at 25 best by the way the data were obtained in the first place. For the Colmar Brunton survey the key point here is that the highest choice was the Western Link Road but we do not know which Western Link Road.

30 Now, onto other topics. Recent research on traffic volumes and there‟s something in the appendix about that. In mid 2012 the SUNA Traffic Channel reported an analysis of major metropolitan roads using speed and vehicle data from thousands of vehicles carrying GPS systems. The busiest Wellington roads were Johnsonville to Porirua motorway, 35 Western Hutt Road, Wellington urban motorway, Centennial Highway between Johnsonville and Newlands. These roads in the city, or near the city, hold up traffic now so can this congestion ever be permanently fixed? I don‟t think so and neither does the CEO of the company that did this research, and there is comments in the appendix. So is the 40 MacKays to Peka Peka road a Road of National Significance? What evidence is there to show that the MacKays to Peka Peka is a Road of National Significant? Is it going to help the overall traffic problem more make Wellington worse?

45 As well as raising questions regarding the necessity of the MacKays to Peka Peka expressway I believe that there are several elephants in the

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room. As Julie-Anne Genter pointed out in her submission to you, where is all the extra traffic generated by this road going to go when it gets to Wellington? It makes me think of London and that City Council‟s congestion charge to try and stop cars going there. If any of 5 the above roads are more congested after the MacKays to Peka Peka is finished, we will be able to sit and wait in cars and contemplate the wisdom of all this.

If Transmission Gully is not built first we could also wait, for I don‟t 10 know how many years, along the coastline before and after Paekakariki or we could wait at Pukerua Bay or Mana after saving a few minutes in Kapiti. Transmission Gully, I believe, is much more critical so I don‟t understand why it has been made a lower priority than MacKays to Peka Peka. What if a new government changes its priorities and 15 Transmission Gully is never built? What if we don‟t have enough money for it? We are not out of the economic woods yet and I think our currency is crippling our manufacturers still.

I suggest that the BCR must be higher for Transmission Gully than it is 20 for the MacKays to Peka Peka and in the appendix I have something from Beca that gives a BCR of 20 cents for every dollar spent. There was also something about this on Campbell Live a couple of months ago.

25 Now, to environmental issues, the first one road size. Although we are faced with the extensive technical reports about mitigation and justification, a four lane expressway through the narrow piece of land that is Kapiti can never really be made to fit. Both the original Western Link Road planning and design and common sense tells us that. For 30 example, we cannot mitigate the extra size of the expressway. The size, both width and height, damages the environment throughout the whole route. Its ugliness will be seen all the time or frequently depending on where you live and go for recreation in Kapiti. It divides the community with a huge ugly barrier. It crosses over our waterways 35 and over roads such as Te Moana Road as it goes alongside houses of the elderly and all who settled here for the beauty and the peace and quiet. Its ugliness will remain for all of us and for future generations.

The Western Link Road would have been flat to suit our semi-rural low 40 density environment. In contrast the expressway will be like a raised embankment in at least eight areas. Height between 6.9 to 8.6 metres will be experienced by residents. The road in general may have to be built higher than normal to allow for water and other issues in this coastal wetland area. 45 [2.16 pm]

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Dividing the Kapiti Coast into three. I believe that dividing the narrow Kapiti Coast into three and building an expressway right through our urban areas and our recreation areas, is an absolute disgrace. 5 Compare the following, a) two motorways and a railway line through the narrow strip of Kapiti, or b) a single modernised motorway – State Highway 1 fixed up – a railway line and a new, two lane eco-road, a beautiful road which would take the local traffic off the motorway and 10 it would connect us rather than drive a wedge through our communities, a wedge both psychologically and physically disconnecting us, while at the same time destroying the chance we had for proper east-west connection.

15 I don‟t believe that the mitigation can ever make up for the losses. There is so much that can‟t be mitigated. I am saddened the losses to this beautiful western area of Waikanae with its quiet walks, wildlife, wetlands, quiet at night, river and streams, low light for star gazing, views of Kapiti, and all the other things you have heard about from 20 submitters.

This area is one of the reasons people want to visit here or holiday or stay. Even if you live at the beach or on the hill you still spend time here near where the road will be – at the river cycling, walking, horse 25 riding and so on.

Waikanae will never be the best small town again. If the expressway is built on this designation then wherever you are in Waikanae it won‟t be very far away from a motorway or railway line. 30 I ask that you will carefully review the Save Kapiti and other submissions on urban design about these matters. We human beings know that beauty has value. I know that enjoying beauty is good for renewal, for psychological wellbing, therefore as good practice we 35 should not build ugliness and destroy beauty when there is another less damaging alternative.

I live in Te Moana Road and, like many others who walk, run , cycle and ride horses on Te Moana, I enjoy the area. The size, sound and 40 ugliness of an expressway and interchange bridge with two roundabouts will destroy our daily enjoyment of exercise and relaxation in this beautiful environment. It will look and sound as if we are in the middle of a large city, and contrary to the statement by Ms Mead for the NZTA, people don‟t adapt to a bad and uncontrollable 45 situation. They are simple forced to endure it.

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As a psychologist I know that a stressor such as this – ie outside of the personal control of people who receive it – is actually the worse kind of stressor. An analogy – a person must adapt to having both legs cut of, but his quality of life will still be seriously compromised. 5 Because there was so little prior planning, the first take at a design for the expressway had no provision for people to get off it at Te Moana Road. This was so blatantly worse than the full connectivity of the Western Link Road option that an interchange with off ramps and 10 roundabouts was fitted in. This ugly solution doesn‟t solve the large connectivity problem. It certainly does not go below ground level, nor is it small as NZTA stated in their brochure.

Finally, another example of disconnection is, if a person lives in the 15 east of Otaihanga and wants to drive to the east of Waikanae, they will have to drive at least seven to eight kilometres via State Highway 1 as they do now, instead of about one to 0.5 of a kilometre if the Western Link Road was to be built. Other people have told you about similar senseless time and petrol costing travels. 20 Now onto flooding, ponding, run off and water pollution.

CHAIRPERSON: Well that is over 30 minutes now, Ms Hinkley.

25 MS HINKLEY: Sorry, is it? Okay.

CHAIRPERSON: Well continue on.

MS HINKLEY: I will just do this very briefly. 30 CHAIRPERSON: We have said a number of times it is an opportunity to speak to submissions already filed.

MR HINKLEY: Sorry. 35 CHAIRPERSON: And requested the submitters to please respect the time limits.

MR HINKLEY: I am very sorry. I thought I had enough time. 40 CHAIRPERSON: Well carry on.

MR HINKLEY: I will try and run through this - - -

45 CHAIRPERSON: We have indulged others and we will indulge you.

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MR HINKLEY: - - - really quickly. Okay. Well, thank you very much for that.

From living in Waikanae and having discussions with the regional 5 council, I know this area is prone to flooding. There is a plan for a 100 year flood. I know we have a high water table. There is research that states that in the future rainfall will be higher in the west of New Zealand. There are plans for NZTA to remove large amounts of peat, which holds water. They will build ponds and change waterways and 10 so on. There will be silting issues and difficulty with pollutants.

[2.21 pm]

We who live here are told to rely on the NZTA models and mitigation 15 methods and checks in the future. However, we have no way of knowing for certain if the premises of their models are accurate, how good and future proof mitigation will prove to be and how good monitoring will be. We should instead take the precautionary approach. 20 During the Board of Inquiry process I became more concerned about flooding than I already was. There‟s some exerts there from the flood management plan, which says all the difficulties that can happen with flooding, I won‟t go through those now as courtesy to time. 25 Just in figure 8 in your appendices, there‟s an example of what happens when you get a flood in this area, a 100 year flood, and I just refer you to - - -

30 CHAIRPERSON: This is the October 1997 plan?

MRS HINKLEY: Yes, this is the October 1997 plan, yes. I think it‟s in my references at the back. And I refer you to evidence of David Royal on flooding, and submission of Generation 0. So I‟m much more 35 concerned about that, having heard more about it.

Peat removal as well, people have spoken about, and I have a reference in the back about peat related to flooding. I‟m also concerned about CO2. 40 Sea level rise, and looking at the appendix I have an example from some recent results that were widely reported in November, that say that sea level rise outpaces experts‟ predictions. According to this research, sea levels are rising 60 percent more than predicted, at a rate 45 of 3.2 kilometres per year. I refer also to Professor Manning, and that this water affects the water table and flooding, et cetera.

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Climate change. I have some references there to people who have submitted in that. Future proofing. It‟s easy to see in any Google search that there are more extreme weather events predicted in the 5 future and that we shouldn‟t be building major infrastructure near the coast, and we shouldn‟t build unless it‟s above 10 metres.

Already on the planet people are thinking about avoiding large population increases close to the coast, and planners are working out 10 ways to move people away from the coast. There‟s even a You-tube video by Wellington City Council showing where streets in Wellington will be flooded with future sea level rise.

Earthquakes and tsunamis. We have a similar area to Christchurch‟s 15 worst hit areas here in Waikanae.

Now, just a very quick overview on rail freight. I have a few nice pictures there in the appendix about rail, what New Zealand Rail have on their website. I understand, and I can‟t give you the reference, I‟m 20 sorry, but I can get it later, that 50 percent of rail freight capacity is not utilised. I don‟t think that in this submission there‟s enough information available about rail, related to the needs for the RoN‟s and in terms of MacKays to Peka Peka. The economics and future possibilities of rail need to be fully understood, and I don‟t think they 25 are.

As you can see, KiwiRail is setting up to take hundreds of trucks off the road, they have three types of freight – for timber, and there‟s a picture there of a train with lots of timber on it for domestic and for 30 import/export. So in terms of sustainability, KiwiRail say they cannot be beaten, and I think they need all the support possible. This is the way of future.

I have in appendix just something about the trucking organisations 35 sitting up and taking notice about this. Also the submission of J and M Harris mentions a report on rail.

Health, I think I might leave that, lots of people have spoken on that. I am concerned about the Lancet Report, talking about houses up to 500 40 metres away from the expressway, people in those houses to that further distance being affected, and I hope the Board can take account of these Lancet and other pieces of research.

So in conclusion, because there was a questionable process prior to the 45 decision making being made, to use the western link road designation

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for the expressway, I believe we have the wrong road in the wrong place and that the application should be denied.

[2.26 pm] 5 I think there needs to be a hard look at this process and the level of involvement of the Minister. There are also other matters of great concern to me regarding how NZTA have managed the total process. Many submissions cover this. 10 I think we need a very high level of assurance that the activities related to building and using a road of this nature in this designation won‟t exacerbate the known flooding problems. We need to do everything to prevent flooding in the future. I ask that we not disturb this water laden 15 area and that climate change issues be rigorously explored.

I support the Save Kapiti submissions in total and submissions of Harris, Beechey, MacKay, Generation Zero, Genter, Lewis, Pomare, Professor Manning and others too numerous to mention. 20 Finally, I would like to say that I personally would like to find a way to advocate and support a move for a change in the law so that people such as many that you have heard whose lives are being destroyed by this senseless expressway through Kapiti can all be properly 25 compensated - this is if it goes ahead - and so that the full cost of this road would be known about and paid for by all New Zealander‟s.

This country should show integrity and fight for the people who have to bear such a huge financial, psychological and spiritual price so that 30 others can get on with it and have an expedient answer to the problem, rather than the right answer.

Thank you.

35 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Now, Dr O‟Sullivan and Ms Thornton.

Now, Dr O‟Sullivan, you are presenting firstly for APSOC and then Ms Thornton is going to present, and then you are presenting in person, is that right? 40 DR O‟SULLIVAN: That‟s correct, sir.

CHAIRPERSON: When you‟re ready.

45 DR O‟SULLIVAN: Thank you.

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I‟d like to briefly talk about the main points of our evidence as submitted and explain how this fits together as a comprehensive case for why this application should be declined.

5 There were some aspects of our evidence relating to air quality and noise and that we have not perhaps explained as clearly as we could have and I would like to address this evidence further today. In addition, the Board has previously expressed an interest in WHO guidelines, which we have submitted evidence on and commented on in 10 expert conferencing and we would like to briefly reiterate these comments here also.

We also have with us today Jennifer Thornton, who will be talking further on noise and vibration, specifically low frequency noise 15 experienced as vibration and sleep disturbance as part of APSOCs representation.

APSOC does not consider that the economic benefits of this proposal have been demonstrated. Julie-Anne Genter‟s evidence on economics 20 and transportation planning concluded that the economic, social and environmental costs have not been fully assessed by the economic evaluation in transportation evidence put forward by NZTA.

Among other points raised Ms Genter considers that the project has 25 been adequately assessed against the due minimum scenario which compares the road with other roads and lacks a true multi modal context and any consideration of alternatives.

As a consequence of this narrow focus the assessment ignores many of 30 the real costs of the project, such as induced land use, increased vehicle kilometres travelled, increased carbon emissions, more accidents, forced car ownership and vehicle operating costs, which result from increased urban sprawl and lack of public transport.

35 [2.31 pm]

Car parking costs have been excluded as has the cost of air pollution, noise, environmental degradation and stormwater effects. Loss of property values, associated with living in close proximity to a major 40 road, are considered to run to several million dollars in the Kapiti region and this loss will have flow on effects in the local economy and demand for government health and social welfare services downstream.

The Transport Agency maintains that the expressway will improve 45 travel times and decrease congestion but has provided no empirical evidence to support this argument. No evaluation of completed

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projects has been provided which demonstrates these benefits. Ms Genter presents evidence from Mettes (ph 0.53) 2008 who concludes that there is very little empirical evidence to support the proposition of improved travel times from improvements to transport 5 infrastructure.

Evidence suggests that travellers take these benefits in the form of travel to more distant locations, increasing vehicle kilometres travelled and frequently adding to congestion. Duranton and Turner 2011 are 10 also cited by Ms Genter as demonstrating that expanding road capacity is more likely to lead to increased congestion. The rationale put forward by NZTA for this road is empty rhetoric. Travel times and congestion will not improve. The weight of evidence suggests that the opposite will occur. 15 The inner city bypass is a case in point. At its planning stage the Agency maintained that travel times would improve, congestion would decrease and air quality was expected to improve. The opposite effect occurred and follow up analysis indicates the area is the most polluted 20 part of Wellington City.

The economic benefits of this road have not been demonstrated. An evidence based approach is required to evaluate the full costs of this proposal and consider it in a multimodal context along with 25 consideration of alternatives.

A focus of our submission has been the effects on health that this proposal is likely to generate and this has, in part, been influenced by the considerable community concern regarding health effects. The 30 Agency denies that any health effects will occur despite a large body of evidence which indicates otherwise.

The Kapiti demographic is such that a large proportion of the population, 65.7 percent, are not of working age. These sectors spend 35 considerable time at home, they use public transportation frequently and are more susceptible to air pollution and noise exposures. From our health survey of the proposed route, we estimate that approximately 40 percent of the population does not drive a car. I consider this estimate is a conservative one. Hence the majority of the population in 40 Kapiti will not benefit from this proposed road. In fact 1,360 dwellings will be within 200 metres of the proposed designation and exposed to unacceptable levels of air pollution and noise. Extrapolating from our health survey, we estimate that 5,390 residents will be severely impacted by this road and almost everyone affected by this road is 45 opposed to it.

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Turning to air quality, I would just like to review the wind roses prepared for us by Paul Bruce meteorologist. These were prepared from NZTA‟s own data which we requested under the OIA. In particular I want to look at the wind roses for Raumati during autumn, 5 winter and spring, seasons that can also coincide with low night temperatures. Frosts, even during October, are common in Raumati and Waikanae. You can see from the recordings here that there is a marked frequency of north easterly winds which typically in Kapiti are experienced as very light air, that is little or no wind. 10 The autumn conditions show a more marked tendency to these light winds and the winter conditions also continue this trend with an increase in colder south-westerly conditions also.

15 No data has been provided for Waikanae in this respect. However, the Greater Wellington Regional Council notes that it is a low lying wetland area similar in topography to Raumati and capable of experiencing the same level of temperature inversions. It can be seen quite clearly over the Waikanae Township on cold winter days and it 20 increases visibly from late afternoon as residents light wood burning fires.

[2.36 pm]

25 Waikanae can experience quite severe frosts in winter and you can see also in the distance of that photo there is some inversion over the houses right up to the hills. Mr Bruce notes in his evidence that there were 42 days over a five month period in 2011 at the Glen Road monitoring site where light variable winds and light stable conditions 30 occurred, some extending through the day and on one occasion of a 38 hour duration.

While there were only three days in the NZTA data where air quality exceeded guidelines, possibly due to a very mild winter in 2012, the 35 greater Wellington region council study carried out in 2010 has recorded some very high levels of particulate matter and this is a table of some of those readings here and you can see if you look at the actual range of data here there are some very high aggregates recorded. The means on their own do not look too bad, but the maximum particularly 40 the 12 hour average of 97.5 is very high.

This greater Wellington regional council study also commented on the light winds which were predominantly north east and south west. Wind speeds were recorded at least than two metres per second well over half 45 the time and less than one metre per second almost 40 percent of the time. These conditions would be experienced as little or no wind at all.

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APSOC considers in view of the evidence presented by Mr Bruce and the independent data from the greater Wellington regional council that there is a high probability that vehicle emissions from the expressway 5 would combine with particulate matter from wood burning fires to exceed air quality guidelines on a large number of days in winter.

Up to 80 days in winter could be involved and there is at least the potential for 40 to 50 days of exceedances as inversions which occur 10 can persist for more than 24 hours. The health impacts of these conditions could be severe for any person with a pre-existing condition and would impact greatly on the elderly and young children with both groups more susceptible to the effects of air pollution.

15 Our expert on air quality, Simon Hales was co-author of the crucial et al 2012 report which the applicant relied on extensively in its air quality analysis. Associate Professor Hales considers that the method used by NZTA may underestimate the pollution effects. He makes a number of recommendations to improve the accuracy of the analysis 20 undertaken by the Transport Agency. He also notes that morbidity effects are much greater than the effects on mortality. Hospital admissions, restricted activity days, days off school or work and life years lost are all avoidable consequences of proximity to major roads and have been omitted from the analysis provided by NZTA. 25 We would urge the Board to consider Associate Professor Hales brief, but concise comments carefully. He has an established reputation the WHO. His work is highly regarded by the Royal Society and he is a noble lawyer for his work on air temperatures and climate change. He 30 actually knows quite a lot about air quality despite the applicant‟s assertions that he does not.

APSOC considers that the air quality analysis from NZTA is incomplete and the study carried out in Paraparaumu contains a number 35 of limitations and I have referred you there to our written evidence on this. With respect to air quality guidelines it is noted that the expert health conferencing participants agreed that there are health impacts associated with living alongside major roads and that proximity to the road was a factor in these effects. 40 It was also agreed that health effects could occur at levels below current air quality guidelines. These guidelines are therefore a conservative estimate of probable effects and no not adequately protect populations against adverse effects. 45 [2.41 pm]

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Simon Hale notes that morbidity effects such as life years lost, hospitalisations and restricted activity days, occur at levels below established regulatory limits. The literature review of the health impact 5 assessment also identifies epidemiological evidence of health impacts below established guidelines.

So returning to the table, of particular a matter from Glen Road as an example, the guidelines allow 24 hour average of 50 ug per cubic 10 metre, whereas levels recorded within that period are often much higher, and the following graph of relative exposure illustrates this.

The graph illustrates how levels of exposure can vary widely during a 24 hour period, which with peaks occurring approximately 6.00 am to 15 9.00 am, and 4.00 pm to 6.00 pm.

Drawing an average line through this data ignores the dose response relationships which occur at peak times. The Raumati South data indicates that these peak levels can be very high. It can be as high as 20 97.5.

Because of the potential for temperature inversions, the likely cumulative effect of wood burning particulates combined with vehicle emissions and the peak concentrations that can occur, we consider that 25 precautionary principles should prevail. The analysis carried out by the applicant with respect to air quality is inadequate, and we do not accept that there would be no adverse effects.

The large body of evidence in the scientific literature tells a very 30 different story.

Moving on to noise. The noise levels proposed exceeds WHO guidelines, particularly with respect to noise levels at night. Levels between 40 to 55 decibels caused widespread adverse effects, and the 35 agency does not propose any intervention unless noise levels within dwellings exceed 45 decibels.

Construction noise is expected to exceed daytime New Zealand guidelines with some frequency. 40 In addition, the area is at present abnormally quite, with readings of 32 decibels common. The increased noise will be highly intrusive to many residents. APSOC considers that the operational noise levels predicted by NZTA are underestimated. We expect that with a large number of 45 trucks using the state highway and with even bigger trucks envisaged, noise levels will be considerably higher than those predicted.

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In addition, the agency has overstated the background noise levels which presently exist.

5 These are exceptionally quiet neighbourhoods, and we note that the proposed new district plan recognises this special character and intends to designate these areas as prohibited areas for a number of noisy activities.

10 Even having under-estimated the traffic noise and over-estimated the ambient noise, there is still no margin for error in the noise levels proposed. They have been shoe-horned into somewhat lenient New Zealand guidelines and still managed to exceed them in some areas.

15 With respect to construction noise, it seems to be a case of anything goes. The agency has acknowledged there is a wide variation in the noise and vibration produced by different types of machinery, and they have no control over the levels produced.

20 There is no consideration of cumulative effects. Neighbours operating machinery, combined with traffic noise from trucks, may well result in levels high enough to damage hearing.

The agency also assumes that everyone in the district works during the 25 day and works outside of their home. We estimate that as much as 80 percent of the population may be rarely at home during the day, either because they‟re not of working age, have a disability or they work from home.

30 The agency does not accept the physiological stress caused by exposure to ongoing noise, including low frequency noise experienced as vibration. Even at relatively low levels, such as 50 decibels of traffic noise, this exposure can cause raised blood pressure, exacerbate depression and increase risk of cardiovascular disease. As one eminent 35 neurologist once noted, anything that puts pressure on the nervous system will make the health condition worse.

[2.46 pm]

40 The physiological stress of noise exposure can affect a wide range of health conditions. The noise and vibration levels proposed by NZTA are not acceptable. They will result in sleep disturbance, adverse physiological stress effects, interfere with children‟s learning, and make speech comprehension difficult for many, and impossible for 45 elderly residents with hearing aids.

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Looking briefly at food security. Back yard food production is a feature of the Kapiti district, and for many on low or fixed incomes it provides an inexpensive source of healthy food. It also contributes to social cohesion as gardeners swap food. Degradation of home gardens 5 from vehicle emissions during road operation, or dust and silt during construction, will have a negative effect on health. Similarly, damage to shallow aquifers in the region will impact on ability to grow food.

Once again, a precautionary approach is needed. Evidence suggests 10 that pollutants are absorbed into the food and if eaten in sufficient concentrations they can affect health. In addition, residents may be put off eating food from their gardens if they consider they have been contaminated. The potential for contamination runs counter the goal of producing fresh, healthy food. 15 While the Agency assures us there will be no long term damage to shallow aquifers, they also acknowledge they don‟t know what they will find until they start digging.

20 The social impacts of this proposed road are also of concern to us. Loss of connectivity and green spaces, degraded neighbourhoods, community severance, and social dislocation all impact on our health.

As the Public Health Advisory Committee has noted in more than one 25 publication, health is largely determined by the settings in which we live. These settings are precious resources which should be managed sustainably and allow our aging population to retain its independence in older age. We have to devolve health care to community settings if we are to provide affordable and accessible health services in coming 30 years.

The Kapiti population needs walkable streets, good access to public transport, and opportunities to engage in active transport such as walking and cycling. It does need a major road through the heart of its 35 communities. Well connected robust communities and neighbourhoods are protective of health and disability in older age. They promote healing of injury and the arrest the disablement process. We cannot afford to degrade them through poor transport planning.

40 The Agency‟s solution to these severe social impacts is the Community Liaison Group which is empowered to address residents‟ problems. We don‟t believe this will be effective because firstly, one cannot assume that residents would have the health literacy to identify the problems. Health literacy generally in New Zealand is low and our 45 survey indicated this trend continues throughout Kapiti.

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Secondly, many of the problems may require specialist health knowledge which community groups are not equipped to provide, and we would be concerned about such groups providing health and wellbeing advice without such knowledge, which may in fact 5 contravene legislation regarding health and disability and provision of services.

Thirdly, we have no confidence that NZTA would undertake such activities with any real integrity. If this is anything like the counselling 10 that was offered to us when the road was first announced, then “thank you, but no thanks”. As one resident has described the counselling offered – “he turned up at my door, he was about 20-something, dressed like a Mormon and \had all the empathy of a Waikanae river boulder”. 15 In conclusion, APSOC submits that the health effects of this project are severe and the economic benefits have not been demonstrated. Air quality analysis is incomplete and contains a number of limitations. Noise levels proposed are unacceptable and they exceed WHO 20 guidelines. The real costs of the project have not been assessed, no consideration of alternatives has been carried out, and a mixed mode solution has not been considered.

APSOC recommends that the Agency consider a sustainable solution 25 which meets the needs of the community in the form of a local arterial road, with integrated walking and cycling tracks, improvements to the current state highway, and further improvements to public transport. We ask the Board to decline the application as the benefits have not been proven, the impacts are severe, and not able to be mitigated, and 30 the cost to this community is too high.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.

MS O‟SULLIVAN: Thank you. 35 CHAIRPERSON: Ms Thornton? If you just move the microphone across so we have it recorded.

[2.51 pm] 40 MS THORNTON: Hello, my name is Jennifer Jane Thornton was my previous name so I just needed to clarify that, and it‟s on my submission. I have previously lived for about 14 years in the Kapiti Coast and the area has always been special to me and, in particular, the 45 relaxed creative ambience. For the last several years I have had an interest in noise and health and so have been doing ongoing research in

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a lay capacity, including interest areas of low frequency and sleep. I am not currently working due to health issues.

I would like to make a couple of points basically in my submission. 5 The first one is about sleep. In the assessment of environmental effects report we read that the proposed expressway, which is a large scale construction project into what is currently a low noise area, will result in a significant increase in noise level with increases ranging, for the most affected dwellings, from between 10 to 21 decibels. The 10 projected level of category A of 57 decibels and category B of 64 decibels is considered that a reasonable external noise level is achieved that allows for noise sensitive activities being carried out without adverse effects. In the key modelling results eight out of the 11 areas will have expected increases of more than 11 decibels, so I 15 understand. These are labelled “significant” but I understand that, according to the RMA criteria, they are actually considered severe impacts.

In the assessment of traffic noise the main three noise mitigation 20 measures are appropriate road surface, noise barriers and building insulation for walls, ceilings, windows, doors and the installation of ventilation. With these measures for buildings it is considered reasonable and acceptable for residential use.

25 On page 25 it reads, “Often improvements to glazing and joinery may be sufficient to achieve the required internal noise levels or simply provision of mechanical ventilation so windows can remain closed”. I understand that the 40 decibel internal limit for the noise criteria of the standard New Zealand 2010 is with all windows and doors closed all 30 the time. However, in the World Health Organisation Night Noise Guidelines for Europe, on page 105, it says, “One thing that stands out is the desire of a large part of the population to sleep with the windows open”. If noise levels increase people do indeed close their windows but, obviously, reluctantly as then complaints about bad air increase 35 and sleep disturbance remains high.

[2.56 pm]

When you subtract 15 decibels with the windows shut from the 40 categories a of 57 decibels and b 64 decibels, you are left with an inside decibel level of 42 decibels and 49 decibels.

But, the World Health Organisation Guidelines say that adverse health effects are observed at the level of 40 decibels and higher, when that is 45 the reading for the night outside, such as self-reported sleep

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disturbance, environmental insomnia and increased use of drugs and sedatives.

They recommend not more than 30 decibels dba as an internal level if 5 there is a continuous noise to safeguard health. Even at very low levels of noise, physiological reactions can be reliably measured. From 30 decibels dba upwards, a number of sleep disturbance effects are observed with above 55 db, decibels, continuously, the situation is considered increasingly dangerous for public health. 10 And the World Health Organisation have a table in their night guidelines, and they give several categories – the first is up to 30 decibels where they say it appears there is no substantial biological effects observed. 15 From 30-40 decibels a number of effects on sleep are observed – body movements, wakening, self-reported sleep disturbance, arousals, the intensity of the effect depends on the nature of the source and number of events. Vulnerable groups, for example children, the chronically ill, 20 the elderly and also shift workers, I understand, are more susceptible. However, even in the worst cases, the effects seem modest.

The next category is 40-55 decibels. Adverse health effects are observed amongst the exposed population. Many people at this level 25 have to adapt their lives to cope with the noise at night. Vulnerable groups are more severely affected.

And then the last category is 55 decibels and above, for continuous noise. The situation is considered increasingly dangerous for public 30 health. Adverse health effects occur frequently, a sizeable portion of the population is highly annoyed and sleep disturbed. There is evidence that the risk of cardiovascular disease increases, and we know that New Zealand‟s number one cause of death is cardiac problems.

35 See www.windaction.org for a simple brief overview of the WHO Guidelines. The WHO Guidelines are about 184pages long, but you can see a summary of them in about four pages on that website.

New Zealand is warmer, a lot warmer, than a lot of Europe and we 40 prize our indoor/outdoor close to nature culture. How many people in Kapiti will want to sleep with windows closed all night after the new motorway goes through.

One page 108 the WHO say “sleep is an essential part of healthy life 45 and is recognised as a fundamental right under the European Convention on Human Rights 2003”. On page 109 they give a night

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noise guideline of night outside 40 decibels and an interim target of outside night noise of 55 decibels.

Then it is noted it should be emphasised that the interim target is not a 5 health based limit by itself, therefore, vulnerable groups are not protected and it is short-term only. It should be temporarily considered by policy makers for exceptional local situations, but I understand if the motorway goes ahead it‟s not going to be temporary, it‟s going to be permanent. 10 [3.01 pm]

Now, I just want to draw attention to a pamphlet that I brought along. It‟s about sleep and it starts off by saying “if you‟re tired and you‟re 15 driving, you‟re dangerous”. Many people think that very few accidents are caused by fatigue, but it‟s not as bad as speeding or drinking. Actually, Australia statistics point the accident rate at around about 30% for fatigue and when combined with speed or alcohol it severely increases the risk of injury or death. 20 Sleep debt. Current research shows that we need eight to eight and a half hours of sleep each night. Anything less and we begin to owe our body sleep. Over a period of several days that sleep debt will grow and affect our concentration, our attention and our ability to make good 25 judgements, all of these directly affect our driving, because this pamphlet is about driving specifically.

A deadly cocktail. Seventeen hours without sleep is equal to two and a half glasses of wine, and that‟s on an empty stomach, or a blood 30 alcohol count of 50 mls. 24 hours of sleep deficit and you are as dangerous and illegal as a driver with a blood alcohol count of 100 mls.

There is only one remedy says the pamphlet. Tiredness requires sleep. Your body was designed that way. Refusing sleep is going against 35 your nature and design. And this is the little pamphlet about sleep here and it‟s put out by, guess who? Road Safety.

So, on one hand we have Road Safety encouraging good sleep and on the other hand we have WHO Guidelines that I don‟t believe Transit 40 are meeting, for good quality sleep, so we have a real discrepancy here.

Second point is about low frequency issues. Low frequency noise is accepted as being more annoying than loud noise, and mostly measurements for traffic and heavy machinery, and that sort of thing, 45 run significantly higher than loud, yet there is no mention of current or projected levels for 20 hertz up to about 100 hertz because vibration is

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for 1-20 hertz only, and the dba measures from about 20 hertz and up, and I‟ve gotta ask “why not?”. Where are any low frequency measurements in the project with, they‟re missing as far as I can see.

5 And low frequency issues are very important. In the website “Noise Facts”, on page three, there are eight statements from the World Health Organisation from their “Adverse Effects of Noise, 1999”, about low frequency noise, and I‟ll just read them out. This website has got only about three or four pages, so it‟s not too long to visit. 10 1. Special attention should also be given to noise sources from low frequency components.

2. Stronger reactions have been observed when noise is accompanied 15 by vibration and contains low frequency components.

3. If the noise includes a large proportion of low frequency components, still lower values than the guideline values will be needed.

20 [3.06 pm]

4. When prominent, low frequency tones are present, noise measures based on A weighting are inappropriate.

25 5. Disturbances may occur even though the sound pressure level during exposure is below 30 dBA.

6. It should be noted that a large proportion of low frequency components may increase considerably the adverse effects on health. 30 7. The evidence on low frequency noise is sufficiently strong to warrant immediate concern.

8. Health effects due to low frequency components in noise are 35 estimated to be more severe than for community noises in general – and that is a quote from Burgland in 1996.

In Simple Guidelines for Siting Wind Turbines to prevent health risks – which is a four page website, a guide is given of not to exceed the level 40 of 35 dBA within 30 metres of occupied buildings and a maximum not to exceed sound level of 50 dBC, without ambient sounds for properties.

Also, they say not to exceed the preconstruction/operation background 45 sound levels by more than 5 dBA, plus a 5 decibel penalty is added for tones.

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In the beginning of this I mentioned that on page 1, that the project is apparently going to have increases, for most affected dwellings, from 10 to 21 decibels. That is a lot higher than 5 decibels for pre- 5 construction levels.

So as far as I can see, the project does not come in line with the above with health issues as a top priority, with their criteria for their sound levels. I just do not see how they can come anywhere near WHO 10 guidelines for regular noise, and they don‟t even mention low frequency noise, and the WHO does. So why don‟t they?

So I have to say that I am opposed to the expressway proposal in full on these grounds, and I wish to thank you very much, Board and your 15 Honour, for hearing me.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Okay.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Yes. I just have a bit of concern that some of 20 the information you have provided, because it seems to relate to wind farm noise where the measurement of the decibels is different from the measurement for an expressway or from traffic. So just some reservation about apply some of this to the noise criteria from an expressway. 25 MS THORNTON: Yes.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: I have sat on a few wind farms and I have heard a lot of evidence about wind farm noise, so I recognise some of 30 the information. So I am not quite sure whether you have quoted a website that says “Wind Action”, so - - -

MS THORNTON: Yes.

35 COMMISSIONER BUNTING: - - - yes, I just have some reservations.

MS THORNTON: Well my answer to that – can I comment?

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Of course. 40 MS THORNTON: Now I can‟t give you the exact place I have seen it, but I understand from reading the WHO noise guidelines, that they make the comment that noise is still noise, and it is the level of the noise and it is the levels of the hertz frequencies that are important. It doesn‟t 45 actually matter what is making the noise, whether it is planes, trains, busses or wind farm or highways. If noise is at decibel levels and

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certain frequencies feature in the measurements, then it is all the same because it is sound pressure level that is the important thing.

[3.11 pm] 5 Now I am sorry I cannot give you the exact page but I do understand that the World Health Organisation does say that.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: It is quite complex. I just had one other 10 question you have said on the page one you understand according to RMA criteria these are considered severe impacts. Are you able to help a bit about what you mean by RMA criteria just to help us?

MS THORNTON: I saw a table in the assessment traffic report for the project 15 and it says on that table that any increase of more than 11 decibels is considered as far as the RMA is concerned to be a severe impact and as far as I can tell from their summary of decibel increases that are expected, is it eight out of 11 districts are going to have more than 10 decibels as an expected rise so as far as I can see, that surely if that is 20 the case then under the RMA, that would qualify as a severe impact. That is my understanding.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Thank you for that, thank you sir.

25 MR APELDOORN: Ms O‟Sullivan I was wondering if you could assist me with the wind rose and would it be possible to have the wind rose slide back up? We are looking at something that is pretty small here. I just wanted to understand the scale of the wind rose and how that works. I guess I see around the circumference that is the orientation, is that right 30 that the wind comes from and we cannot read the numbers, but do we interpret from that that the further remote the graph is from the centre point of the graph, the higher the wind speed.

DR O‟SULLIVAN: That is my understanding ,yes. I am not an expert on 35 wind roses either, I would have to clarify that with Mr Bruce, but that is my understanding.

MR APELDOORN: Right, and I just wanted to reconcile that with your comment that north easterly winds are experienced as very light year? 40 DR O‟SULLIVAN: I think it may be to do with the frequency of the wind occurrence rather than the actual intensity of the wind. I can clarify that for you, but I cannot do it immediately.

45 MR APELDOORN: Okay, thank you. So just moving on you describe that Mr Bruce notes in his evidence that there were 42 days over a five

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month period where winds were light and stable. Does that wind condition always reconcile with an inversion? This is at the top of page three.

5 DR O‟SULLIVAN: My understanding is that no it does not, but it does actually raise the potential risk of an inversion occurring and I note that Ms Borger in cross-examination did concede that it is possible that a temperature inversion would occur on those days.

10 MR APELDOORN: Right.

DR O‟SULLIVAN: I cannot give you an absolute figure as to what the relative risk would be, but I know that the probability of inversion occurring does increase where you have got light air and cold overnight 15 temperatures and that those conditions are encountered quite regular in both Raumati and Waikanae.

MR APELDOORN: And so I put this question to a submitter the other day who presented the same evidence that up to 80 days in winter could be 20 involved, how do we move from this potential for inversions of sitting at around 42 days to moving to 80 days?

[3.16 pm]

25 DR O‟SULLIVAN: It would depend on the severity of the winter. For example in 2011 we had a particularly mild winter in Kapiti and overall average temperatures were higher than normal. I understand for winter 2012 we had a greater range, in that we had a number of very cold days, but also some higher temperatures as well. 30 So it is possible if we had a cold winter we could have colder temperatures, lighter air on more occasions, and that this is just an estimate, it is not based on any database, but it‟s an estimate of the potential number of days where this could occur if we had cold 35 conditions throughout winter.

MR APELDOORN: Okay, thank you very much.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. We will take a 10 minute break and then come 40 back to your personal submission.

ADJOURNED [3.17 pm]

RESUMED [3.26 pm] 45 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Yes, Dr O‟Sullivan.

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DR O‟SULLIVAN: Thank you, sir. I would like to begin by talking about some of the adverse impacts for the proposed road and how they affect me and my property, and then go on to talk about some of the process 5 issues that I‟ve struggled with in connection with the project.

In my initial submission I stated my intention to provide further evidence, however those issues have been well covered both in expert evidence and in a range of submissions from residents and I don‟t wish 10 to keep repeating this here.

My objection to the proposed road, from both a personal and a community perspective, centres around health and wellbeing, including the social aspects. 15 The air pollution, noise and light pollution generated by this road would make my home uninhabitable. The road would be virtually on top of us, 45 metres from my boundary and at a height of between 7- 10 metres. The on and off ramps of the Te Moana interchange would be 20 directly opposite my house. The raised carriageway would cut across our western skyline and block sunlight, particularly during winter months, and the noise bunds proposed would produce a pollution surge approximately 50-80 metres from the carriageway, which would intersect with my house. 25 [3.31 pm]

Both my son and I have health conditions such that neither of us should live anywhere near a major road. My son suffers from asthma and 30 chronic fatigue and I have high blood pressure and arthrosclerosis of the aorta along with a strong family history of stroke. My mother suffered a stroke at the age of 48.

Our health would be seriously affected if this road were built and we 35 continued living in our present home. My son is interested in marine conservation with a particular interest in shark conservation and he strongly objects to the government decision to build this road along with a number of other current government destructive policies. He stated his intention to leave New Zealand if this road is built and he 40 would like to continue his studies at James Cook University instead. And I have no other family and his loss would be keenly felt if he left the country.

The noise levels generated by this road would make habitation in our 45 present home impossible. Like many people on the Kapiti Coast I work from home and I have a fully equipped home office which is

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located at the end of the house and directly opposite the sand dune that would be replaced by the road. I mark university papers, assignments and exams, supervise research and I undertake contract work of a research nature. I require complete focus on this work in order to 5 evaluate the work I am marking or supervising. I cannot work in a noisy environment.

When I bought the property I initially intended to grow figs and limes on the land along with some olives along the back bank and I was about 10 to start planting the trees when the roading announcements were made and all plans to generate a modest income from the property were put on hold and we went with sheep instead as a way of keeping the paddocks under control.

15 We rely on the income from the sale of lambs to contribute towards the rates on the property. Our specialty Wiltshire ewes would not tolerate poor air quality or noise and their health would also suffer. We could not graze the back paddock during construction which would make the property unviable as there would be insufficient grazing to maintain the 20 animals. There simply would not be enough grass to enable a viable rotation of paddocks if the back paddock was unusable. Relocating these animals elsewhere would also create problems as the remaining paddocks still need to be maintained and the quality of grazing would deteriorate markedly if they were not routinely being rotated with 25 stock.

If the animals are relocated they are unlikely to lamb, sheep also need some certainty in their living environment. And these kinds of logistic problems would create real stress for lifestyle block owners such as 30 ourselves.

The stress, noise, vibration, dust, intrusion, loss of green space and loss of privacy during the construction period would be intolerable. The immediately adjacent environment would be turned into a wasteland 35 with a layer of silt over everything on our property. The operation of the road would bring little respite with noise, vibration and air pollution on a continuous basis.

I have no confidence that the management plans proposed by NZTA 40 would prevent damage to the internal walls of my house. The plasterboard is fragile in keeping with the 1920s character of the house and it‟s likely to break down with repeated vibration.

We live an outdoor lifestyle and when I am not working on research 45 and academic work I spend 90 percent of my time outdoors and I often work on academic work outside too if I have a hard copy I can read. In

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addition we eat outdoors during summer and we don‟t want the additional stress of high noise levels from a nearby motorway. I also suffer from tinnitus, which is exacerbated by exposure to ongoing noise. The acceleration and deceleration of vehicles as they approach 5 the Te Moana interchange will directly affect our property and contribute to high noise levels and high levels of vehicle emissions.

Our food production areas are at the back of the house and approximately 50 metres from the proposed carriageway. We garden 10 sustainably and organically and we do not wish to eat food contaminated by vehicle emissions. Our fruit trees and asparagus patch have taken many years to establish and cannot be replaced at this stage of my life. This loss or organic fresh produce would have a considerable direct financial effect on our household and we strive to 15 maintain a high level of self sufficiency.

[3.36 pm]

I don‟t have the income to do a large supermarket shop every week. If 20 we can‟t grow it ourselves or make it then we don‟t have it, apart from a few staples and occasional treats.

I swap food regularly, and people kindly donate excess fruit, fish and meat to vary our diet. 25 Reciprocity is a feature of highly connected neighbourhoods such as ours. Last summer I had an excess of fresh figs and I donated some to friends and neighbours, and this led to the receipt of a large bucket of fijoas, and I gave some of those away too and got plums and walnuts 30 back in return. Some of the walnuts were then swapped for a big bag of mushrooms. So the alterative economy continued.

All of this healthy food production, the reciprocity and the social interaction would grind to a halt if this expressway were built. 35 Along with many residents in Waikanae, I am concerned about the creation of a biting nuisance and possible introduction of disease from increased numbers of mosquitos due to the additional water bodies and higher humidity these will create. 40 When I mentioned this to NZTA I found soon afterwards that there was a new stormwater pond proposed right along my western boundary, which I thought was an interesting coincidence.

45 This mosquito problem in Waikanae may be regarded as a moot point, however it effects the quality of life of residents and being eaten alive

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by mozzies all summer is very unpleasant. Many of us are unable to work in our gardens during the heat of the day through the summer months, and we carry it out between 4.00 and 7.00 pm. It is difficult to avoid mosquitos at this time, and sprays and other preparations often 5 last only a limited time when one is working hard and many manufacturers warn about their continued use.

Given the Ministry for the Environment predictions of higher rainfall and increased flooding for this part of the country, I have no confidence 10 in NZTA‟s assertions that the stormwater ponds would be of limited duration. In heavy rain they could contain water for several days, which is plenty of time for the reproduction of mosquitos, and some species require only a few hours and the stormwater ponds would be rapidly populated from the natural water bodies in the area. 15 Some may regard my concerns regarding the introduction of diseases such as Dengue fever as fanciful, however I consider it is not a question of “if”, but “when” these diseases become established in New Zealand. Species capable of carrying these diseases are no longer tropical 20 species, they are well adapted to New Zealand winters.

I do not want these water bodies on my boundary as I consider the biting nuisance created would be severe and the disease risk high.

25 Along with MFE predictions of greater rainfall comes the possibility of increased flooding in this area. This climate change effect will be exacerbated by the expressway which will act as a dam across the interglacial layers that make up the geology of the area.

30 I consider that David Roil‟s explanation of the geology, particularly that relating to the area from Waikanae River to Te Moana, is accurate and it reflects the solid knowledge of the river and the way in which the river and groundwater interact.

35 Looking at Mr Roil‟s evidence, however, my conclusions are somewhat different. I consider that the only valid conclusion one can draw from this evidence is that no road should ever be built in this area.

My house sits on top of a large, shallow aquifer. There is a possibility 40 that this could double in size if the damming effect of the expressway occurs. Combined with expected increased rainfall, extensive flooding of my property could then result. I do not accept that the damming effects would be minimal in this area as concluded by the expert conferencing. No investigations have been carried out on my property 45 and they do not even appear aware of the ground water flows on that side of the proposed designation. They have admitted they don‟t know

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what they will find until they open it up, and the level of uncertainty here is simply unacceptable.

These are some key issues of concern for me, but it is by no means a 5 complete list. People often approach me and ask “what shall I talk about?” and my answer is invariably, “anything you like”. There is so much one could focus on with respect to this proposal and its very serious impacts.

10 I would like to now turn to some of the process issues I have had difficulty with, and I have some photos to illustrate some of these points, and also some before and after photos to illustrate the years of work and personal commitment that has gone into my property.

15 I purchased this property approximately five years ago, and like most people in this area, I carried out due diligence with respect to researching the title and I spent time down at the Kapiti Coast District Council pouring over LIM reports, asking questions about flooding, and checking out the structural viability of the house. 20 [3.41 pm]

I was told that the Western Link Road would go ahead and I was happy with that. It was handy but not close enough to be intrusive. Contrary 25 to some statements in the course of this hearing, there has never been a designation for a road through the back of my property, through wetland 9, Taku Rakau or this section of the Wahi tapu land and if you see the map on the screen there is a red line drawn between my house and the pink dotted line which is the Western Link Road designation. 30 Now this designation did a dog leg around the back of the urupa. It was over beyond two sets of sand dunes and quite some considerable distance from my property. It is not equitable that property owners having bought in good faith now find that the value of their properties 35 has decreased considerably, some by as much as half and many have lost all the equity in their properties and I really feel for a number of young people in this situation.

My property is similarly affected. If I had been seduced by a high 40 interest rate and lost all my money to a finance company, I would probably be tempted to say to myself serves you right, however I feel I have acted prudently in purchasing this property and I remember naively stating to someone at the time of purchase “three acres in the middle of Waikanae how could you go wrong”? How could I indeed. 45

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I am astounded at just how wrong this was even though I had no control over it and how this could happen in a democratic country. I cannot sell my property and as a consequence I cannot go somewhere else, anyway where would I go? There is nowhere else in Kapiti that I 5 could go and get away from a major road if this expressway is built.

I do not want to leave Kapiti but I may be forced to as there is nowhere I can go. My hometown of Christchurch is not an option either. As one Prairie Road resident commented to me “it is not fair to do this to 10 people at this time of life”. I agree with this view, I do not have the energy to start again with a bare paddock, even if I could afford to buy one and I would never be able to reproduce the mature trees that currently exist on my present property.

15 I understand that property values are outside of the Board‟s term of reference which is extremely convenient given that it is one of the most severe impacts of this road. Thousands of people are affected in addition to myself and it will affect the provision for retirement and the ability to provide care for myself in older age. The likelihood that 20 government will support old age in an aging population is lessening. We will likely be subsidised, but we will need retirement income. This road means that provision for care in later years is stripped from me.

As mentioned previously we live sustainably and a productive 25 vegetable garden has been established and fruit trees and an asparagus patch rescued from the undergrowth. A greenhouse was built using recycled materials to extend the growing season and this area now provides a large part of our food requirements. Nothing gets wasted. Scraps are composted or fed to the ducks, the sheep mow the lawns and 30 we avoid using fossil fuels.

Tree pruning‟s are used for heating, both for rooms and hot water and smaller branches are turned into twig mulch to conserve water around trees and shrubs. The property when I bought it was quite overgrown 35 with gorse, blackberry rushes and other unmentionables and it took quite a lot of work to get it under control. It now provides fruit trees, grazing and shelter for us and our animals.

Access to the property was improved and a new driveway was put in. 40 Similarly, the house required quite a bit of work and it was completely reclad wall and ceiling, ecowall insulation was installed, along with ground insulation because of the high water table and under floor insulation and none of this was cheap.

45 Existing floor tiles were also retained because of their insulating properties. An eco model wood burner was installed along with a new

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hot water system with a wetback. Approximately $60,000 was spent to make the house thermally efficient, healthy to live in and restore some of its original 1920‟s character and it was the kind of money you would spend on a house that you intend to live in for the long term. 5 [3.46 pm]

If we have to leave I could never get the money back on these improvements, even if I could attract a buyer, as thermal efficiency is 10 not fully valued in terms of house resale price.

The proposed road would tower over us, removing our natural landscape. Most of the value in my property lies in the fact that it is approximately one kilometre from the road away from noise and 15 traffic, and it has a peaceful sanctuary like setting, the special character of this property would be destroyed.

As you can see from this slide, we are in close proximity to the sand dune at the base of the urupa, which would be removed to build this 20 road. I don‟t want to be anywhere near that dune if they opened it up. It would require extensive earthworks and be a huge undertaking, and it is implausible to suggest that the immediate surrounding area would not be affected.

25 NZTA don‟t actually know what they‟d find until they opened it up, and I actually think I have a better idea of what‟s there than they do as a local resident who has worked this land. Having the raged carriageway right next to us would have a severe impact. This is a crude attempt to illustrate this in the absence of anything else, as only 30 NZTA actually knows what this will look like. Other drawings of the interchanges et cetera show that roads look approximately three metres high with no noise bunds and not a truck in sight.

With this road, even with the noise bunds on top, tourist buses and 35 trucks would still be able to see straight into our property. We have a solar panel due to go on the north-west corner of the house, which would be covered in dust and silt during construction and vehicle emissions during operation, and we‟d also be affected by shading from the raised road structure. 40 The news about this road, in terms of the information from NZTA, has been a progressive dinner of cold comfort. Initially we were told that the option chosen would follow the western link road, this was incorrect. The western link road designation could not sustain the 100 45 kilometre per hour speed limit needed for a state highway, and was unsuitable for large trucks. NZTA knew this when they put this option

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on the table. It was put on the table to mislead the community into accepting the road.

Then we were told that there would be a choice of an eastern or a 5 western option through Waikanae. One went through a large number of houses, the other went through the wahitapu area. This on the screen in the eastern option. You can see two red dots there, one is directly beside my house and the other one just as an additional reference point, is a former Doc Martin‟s house, which is on the top of the sand dune. 10 So that‟s the eastern option, here‟s the western option which forms an arc along behind my house and through the Tockers property.

Many saw these options as a cynical attempt to drive a wedge between 15 Pakeha and Maori in the community. Along with many others, I responded that neither option was acceptable.

A similar tactic was employed in Raumati South, with an option that NZTA knew they would never get consent for, going through QEII 20 Park.

Then we had the option chosen which was advised was the western option. And compared to the original western option this designation extends much further to the east and it incorporates a large amount of 25 purchased land both east and west of the proposed road, and we still had no idea where the actual carriageway would be. Following this option being chosen, I was informed by NZTA that the carriageway would be approximately 80 metres from my boundary. I was subsequently informed that it is now 45 metres from my boundary. So 30 somewhere between the option being chosen as the western option, we get the pink version of what was the western option, which is actually incorporating quite a lot of the eastern option, and since then that‟s also moved another 40-odd, 50 metres.

35 Now we come to current proposal, which shows that the designation now extends to all of the purchased land that was on that pink slide, all of that purchased land with the big triangle up to the top of the slide and further down at 190 Te Moana Road and the house next to it has all been included in the designation with the existing proposal. And it‟s 40 also now effectively encircling my property.

[3.51 pm]

And here‟s the current designation compared with that area of pink, and 45 you can see that it is incorporating all of the purchased land there. I believe at least some of these plan changes were a deliberate attempt to

Kapiti Coast 17.01.13 Page 2369

antagonise me, along with the stormwater pond right on my boundary. I actually found these tactics quite motivating in terms of the impetus to continue to oppose this road.

5 And I should state that my opposition relates to the damage inflicted on the Kapiti region not just on my own property. I have watched other people suffer through this process and it has saddened me. I have seen the toll taken on careers, marriages, relationships and people‟s health. My own career has been affected and I believe the decision to not 10 renew my teaching contract was related to my public criticism of the road. I also note a very strong family resemblance between Peter Crampton, dean of Otago Health Sciences and Colin Crampton, manager, NZTA.

15 The eastern or western options never actually existed. They were a manipulative tool to try and engender acceptance of the road. While people were busy arguing over which option was better they were being moved subtly toward acceptance of the road going through this area. No doubt there will be further maps, further plans and still we 20 will be no better off in terms of having any certainty about where the road will go. As the designation grows ever wider NZTA‟s options for locating the road within the designation increase. It would not surprise me at all to see further changes made to these plans.

25 Similarly, I have no idea of the exact height of the road and consider that the 10 metre height of the Waikanae River Bridge and the Te Moana interchange is likely to be maintained past my property rather than the seven metre ground level specifications which were sent to me. 30 And with the carriageway at 45 metres from my boundary this would struggle to avoid the slope taking out my back fence. I have included a list of conditions that I would like met if this road is approved but the Board should also note that further legal action will follow if approval 35 is granted. We would also examine the possibility of an appeal.

If the road is built we are faced with a very difficult situation. We cannot live there and we cannot afford to go anywhere else. We face the possibility of being homeless, living off the generosity of friends 40 and garages and sleepouts. I‟m not a rich person. I have spent the past 20-odd years caring for a child with high health needs as a solo parent. I have only ever been able to work part time.

My working goals were all directed toward a health promoting 45 property, such as this, where we could live sustainably and self sufficiently. It took 20 years of hard work to afford it, it took several

Kapiti Coast 17.01.13 Page 2370

years to find it and it took another five years to make it habitable and I am very angry that this government and its Transport Agency can destroy those years of work with the stroke of a pen. And I hope that at the end of your deliberations you also find that it is the wrong thing to 5 do. Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Dr O‟Sullivan in the last page you have made some very, very, very serious allegations. Why did you not do that on evidence under oath earlier in the hearing? 10 DR O‟SULLIVAN: I regarded it as part of my personal story rather than APSOCs.

CHAIRPERSON: But you gave evidence. 15 DR O‟SULLIVAN: No, I didn‟t.

CHAIRPERSON: You gave evidence generally.

20 DR O‟SULLIVAN: I gave evidence as a public health expert only.

CHAIRPERSON: All right. The other thing is it‟s inappropriate to threaten decision making bodies with appeals.

25 DR O‟SULLIVAN: I don‟t regard it as a threat, sir, rather an advisory that we would continue an appeal.

CHAIRPERSON: Well, it could be read differently and lawyers understand that it‟s not something you do. 30 DR O‟SULLIVAN: I apologise, sir, that was not my intention.

CHAIRPERSON: All right, thank you, you may stand down. Drs Fawcett and Smith. Thank you. 35 [3.56 pm]

DR FAWCETT: Thank you for having me along, I am Dr Chris Fawcett. I am representing myself and Dr Tim Smith, and we are grateful for the 40 opportunity to just speak to our written submission and just highlight a couple of point – we will be brief – about the functioning of Paraparaumu Medical Centre.

To start with, I just want to briefly outline the context of health care 45 delivery on the Kapiti Coast. There is no hospital on the Kapiti Coast – there are a limited number of outpatient facilities delivered at the

Kapiti Coast 17.01.13 Page 2371

Health Centre, and the majority of health care in this area is delivered by private providers. There is Hora Te Pai, which is run by the PHO, and then a large number of private providers, and Paraparaumu Medical Centre is one of those private providers. 5 The building of the road, and particular the interchange at Kapiti Road, is going to have a significant impact, and basically, I believe, make the delivery of services from that site impossible.

10 So to start with, Paraparaumu Medical Centre deliver services to about 4,800-5,000 patients. Of those, about a quarter are elderly and a quarter are children, and about a third are Community Service holders, so they are relatively high need. It is on the edge of a higher needs portion of Paraparaumu. 15 We think that there are a number of issues, and I will just briefly touch on those that are going to impact, but I have just also provided you with a letter from Compass Health which is the management service organisation which works for the Primary Health Organisation who 20 funds primary care in the area, just supporting our concerns about the delivery of health care in the area from this site.

Our concerns are outlined in our written submission. The first one is traffic, and I would just like to talk about this in two phases – the 25 construction period and the post-construction period.

We have got 4,800 patients who are enrolled at Parapaumu Medical Centre. They attend an average of four times a year, so that is about 16,000 people coming to and from the centre every year. They come in 30 a verity of ways – they walk, they use mobility scooters, they come on busses, there are two bus stops outside the medical centre. They come in cars, and they walk with prams. They also come in taxis. We also have ambulances come to the Centre.

35 During the construction phase of this interchange we are going to have significant problems. There is a construction depot – at one stage it was sited right next door; I‟m not quite sure where that‟s going to be, but wherever it is, it will be very close to our facility. So there will be large trucks coming and going to a construction site, the road surface 40 will inevitably be disrupted, mobility scooters will find it difficult to negotiate the pavements, there will be big vehicles going and going, and I think there are real safety concerns for people accessing that site, particularly the elderly and impaired who find negotiating traffic difficult at the best of times. 45

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And obviously ambulance access will be a problem as well during times of constructions.

Even after construction there is the significant increase in traffic flow, 5 and one of the technical reports from the Kapiti Coast District Council suggested at times the traffic will be backed up for a couple of hundred metres to the Arawhata intersection, which is just beyond our practice, which will basically mean that there will be no ability to access the practice while the traffic is backed up. Which again obviously is a 10 concern for ambulances and just people generally wishing to get appointments.

Those are, very briefly, our traffic concerns.

15 There is obviously a noise concern. Medical centres, being private businesses, operate a sort of a unique niche, neither being public facilities nor totally private. We are excluded from the consideration of being a particularly sensitive site because we are not a rest home and we're not a hospital with overnight beds. But in spite of that, we have a 20 considerable number of patients who come and go who are sensitive to noise.

[4.01 pm]

25 The technical reports suggest that at periods of the time the noises during the construction period will be up to 80 decibels, considering that a quiet conversation is 50 to possibly 60, that‟s going to make consultations impossible and listening through a stethoscope will be impossible to conduct as well. 30 An attempt to minimise noise for local inhabitants which is to be commended, noisy activities will be scheduled for during the day particularly, which obviously has a major impact on the functioning of the medical centre. 35 To be truthful, sometimes we have difficulty communicating with elderly and deaf patients already. This is just going to make it impossible. This period of time, we're not sure if 12 to 24 months, whatever it is, it‟s a long period of time out of the life of the medical 40 centre, and it really will make delivery of any service very difficult during that time.

Post-construction, I understand we're in a zone where there may be up to 22 decibels increased noise in our facility. That will, again make 45 ordinary consultations extremely difficult.

Kapiti Coast 17.01.13 Page 2373

The third area that we have identified as being a major risk is vibration. During construction, obviously this can‟t be avoided. But it does make the use of delicate machinery, like ECGs, impossible and – I‟m unsure, but it may even pose a risk to minor surgery or procedures that require 5 a delicate and require a steady hand and a good working environment. Hopefully the vibration will cease after the construction period.

Shifting a medical centre for a period of time is very difficult. Medical centres tend to be purpose built buildings and an end destination. It has 10 been proposed that we could possibly shift out for a period of time, but we don‟t know how long the construction period will actually be, and then shift back. But what we are suggesting is that, either the road doesn‟t go ahead or if it does, could you please put us somewhere where we can continue to service our 4,800 patients in a way that‟s safe 15 and effective.

That‟s all I really wanted to say, thank you very much.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Dr Fawcett. 20 MS PAINE: Just one question, Dr Fawcett.

DR FAWCETT: Yes.

25 MS PAINE: So if the road was to go ahead and have you discussed a location of where you might like to go?

DR FAWCETT: As you‟re probably aware, land in Kapiti is reasonably difficult to find, but we are looking hard for what the alternatives 30 would be.

We would ideally like something in the same locality, because we do have a lot of elderly folk who come on mobility scooters and a lot of young families who walk. Whether that‟s going to be possible or not 35 depends on a whole lot of things, whether there‟s land available, but we're exploring the options as we speak.

MS PAINE: And you‟re exploring those options with NZTA?

40 DR FAWCETT: Yes.

MS PAINE: Thank you.

DR FAWCETT: Yes we are in discussion with NZTA, but haven‟t reached a 45 final conclusion yet.

Kapiti Coast 17.01.13 Page 2374

MS PAINE: Thank you, Doctor. Thank you, sir.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Just teasing this out.

5 DR FAWCETT: Yes.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Reasonably positive that you might be able to come to a satisfactorily completion?

10 DR FAWCETT: I‟m sincerely hoping so. But until people have put ink on paper I think we're still uncertain really.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: So the discussions are on-going, are they?

15 DR FAWCETT: Discussions are on-going, yes.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Okay, thank you very much.

MR APELDOORN: And I just wanted to tease that one step further, and 20 that‟s “post-construction”, but – put the medical centre in its same location post-construction, would that be an acceptable operating environment for you?

DR FAWCETT: I still think there are going to be major problems, 25 particularly with the traffic and possibly the noise, but the traffic particularly, because if there are going to be traffic backups and it‟s unclear to me what the exact configuration of those off-ramps are, there are going to be off-ramps onto Kapiti Road.

30 [4.06 pm]

The land that LTSA has taken for site work start at our western boundary, so the off ramp will come off right there.

35 Currently we have an entry and exit, so the patients come in, drive in one side and drive round the property and come out, one of those will be required to be closed because it is too close to an intersection. So we will only have one site of entry and exit from the property. There will be a four lane road outside our property, so crossing it from the bus 40 station or a bus stop will be difficult. The bus stops are going to be shifted during the time of construction. When and where they‟re going to end up afterwards is unclear, and there are going to be hugely increased traffic flows down that road.

45 Turning across a lane of traffic will become turning across two lanes of traffic and, as I say, there will be a traffic island in some part of that

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anyway. So we are severely concerned about the traffic after the event anyway, and then this associated noise is going to make things even difficult then.

5 So we are particularly concerned about the construction period, but are very concerned about the post construction period as well, and the logistics of shifting out and then back again don‟t seem to make terribly much sense as well.

10 MR APELDOORN: Thank you. Thank you, sir.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Dr Fawcett. I am pleased that you confirmed there is ongoing discussions because we had the indication earlier in the hearing that there have been discussions with you. 15 DR FAWCETT: Yes.

CHAIRPERSON: And we can see your concerns when you are so close to the off ramp, so hopefully they can be reasonably speedily concluded. 20 DR FAWCETT: Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Ms Engman?

25 MS ENGMAN: Hello, thank you for hearing me. I didn‟t give you a copy of what I am doing because I am doing some adlibbing from it and it‟s really for my own benefit.

Okay, my name is Elaine Engman and I am still a US citizen, though I 30 am a resident of New Zealand now. In my former life I was a teacher, both in elementary school in general classroom and then for many years a music teacher also, so I am sensitive to noise.

I lived in the Netherlands for many years before I moved here, and I 35 was very active in the expat community, involved with a lot of organising of everything from international school orchestra to an art competition et cetera.

Okay, my present address is 173 Te Moana, which is about 250 metres 40 from the designated motorway.

As I said, I am new to New Zealand. I have been visiting my son and his family yearly since 2006. I met my wonderful partner in February 2009 and then brought property in March 2010. I knew about the 45 expressway but was told that the route would follow the Western Link Road and it would be at grade.

Kapiti Coast 17.01.13 Page 2376

I have lived here full time in New Zealand since 2010, but only achieved residency this last July.

5 Only a few months after buying my house I was horrified to hear that the motorway was being moved much closer to my property and that many homes were going to be destroyed and that a huge overpass was going to be built on Te Moana - very close.

10 I would never have brought this property had I known this, let alone invested large amounts of money upgrading and repairing it, money which I will never recover if this motorway is built.

Many people have testified, very convincingly, why this motorway will 15 have such severe impact on the thousands of people who live in Kapiti. A number of whom don‟t realise yet what a terrible neighbour it will be.

Rather than repeat what has been said, I would like to try and give a 20 different perspective as a US citizen who lived in Southern California for 49 years. In addition, before moving to New Zealand, I was a resident of the Netherlands for 17 years. I find it tragic that clean, green New Zealand is still making the mistakes that the US made years ago.

25 A couple of examples. It wasn‟t just an accident that public transportation in so many parts of the States is so inadequate. GM and the oil companies waged a war on electric trollies, it was indeed an all- out assault, but by no means the single reason for the failure of rapid transit. It is just as clear that the actions and inactions by government 30 contributed significantly to the elimination of electric trams.

You can Google this under the General Motors Streetcar Conspiracy, there was movies made about this, things like “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”. 35 [4.11 pm]

Anyway, it is easy to see the similarities of this type of auto centric thinking in the neglect of KiwiRail, not to mention the on again/off 40 again, on again attempts at privatisation.

I was rather shocked to see the parallels, because I didn‟t expect it here.

I lived in Southern California, the home of the world‟s first freeway, as 45 they are called there, for 49 years. I soon learned that high quality of life, one did not want to live anywhere near a freeway. House prices

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near freeways are always much lower, which is of course what will happen in Kapiti.

The last property that I owned for 14 years in California was in Pacific 5 Palisades, which has a population of about 24,000 people, an increasingly upscale community between Santa Monica and Malibu. It‟s a beautiful area in the foothills of the Santa Monica mountain, with many homes having wonderful ocean views, sound familiar? There is a vibrant town centre, much patronised and appreciated by local 10 residents.

In California there is a tremendous push to build freeways for commuters and to service outlying areas, so in the 1960s a new 8-lane freeway was planned to the outlaying valley regions, to go right 15 through the heart of the Pacific Palisades and across the Santa Monica mountains. Despite the highway lobbies vigorous attempts to show how essential this tremendously expensive monstrosity was, local communities and environmentalists prevailed, and the proposed highway route became part of Temescal Canyon State Park. 20 Now many would say the Pacific Palisades is one of the most desirable places to live in Los Angeles, as well as one of the most expensive. Freeways do not make an area a more desirable place to live, quite the opposite. 25 Living in Holland was an eye-opener also. Amazing public transportation, and of course everyone rides bicycles. In addition, the Dutch government plans for the future, and are very concerned about global warming. Politicians are not just discussing that there could be 30 flooding in the future, in the Hague where I lived, sea walls protecting the city have already been built. I was really impressed about this, everyone‟s talking about – oh, global warming, the Dutch have gone ahead and they‟ve already raised the sea walls all along the coast near the Hague. 35 Though private auto usage is discouraged through taxation and by making inner cities very expensive and difficult to drive in, the Dutch realised that roads are still important. Motorways are never built through the centre of towns or cities, always ring roads. The Hague 40 where I lived has a 30 year plan to build a ring road, which is currently under construction, a lot of it will underground, so as not to disturb the people that live nearby.

A very long tunnel was completed a couple of hundred yards from 45 where I lived resulting in a transformed, peaceful, cleaner and safer neighbourhood. Of course much of Holland is below sea level, but the

Kapiti Coast 17.01.13 Page 2378

Dutch government that the quality of people‟s lives is important enough that they are willing to make the investment to build tunnels rather than to build motorways that pass through where people live.

5 It was a shock moving to New Zealand, to find out how poorly transportation is planned for the future, too much like the US. Poor planning in Wellington has led to considerable added expense for ratepayers. Unfortunately, my partner apartment where we live part time until he retires, has an outstanding unobstructed view of the 10 construction work on the Buckle Street tunnel. Okay, we‟re literally overlooking it, our balconies overlook the construction.

You ought of heard how loud it was this morning with the jackhammers. We met in February 2009, and while being with him 15 was wonderful, the motorway noise from directly below his apartment was awful. He moved here from Buenos Aires 40 years ago, and he didn‟t mind the noise. I said I can‟t live here unless we do double glazing, this is terrible, awful. He spent almost $15,000 double glazing most of his apartment to placate me, and it did help, it did help. But of 20 course we can‟t open the windows, and particularly now that all this construction is going on out there.

One of the reasons I bought my Waikanae house was to be, because it was going to be our retirement home, and because it was so quiet. No 25 traffic noise could be heard, only bird song, because of the 1800 metre property with the spring-fed pond in Waimea Stream was 100 metres from Te Moana. You can sit in the back yard and hear nothing now, even though we‟re only 100 metres. But with the raised motorway.

30 Again, I personally have distrusted developer trust of NZTA and New Zealand government planning. War Memorial Park, which they‟re working on now, and by the way I think the tunnel is a good idea, just the way they‟ve gone about it is questionable, but getting back to War Memorial Park, it was dedicated in 2007 and scheduled to be 35 completed by the end of 2008. The tunnel that the previous government had approved was cancelled by the National government as being too expensive. NZTA also claimed the tunnel was too expensive.

40 [4.16 pm]

Finally after several years the Wellington city government was sufficiently ashamed of the trashy eyesore this vacant land had become, that they had the area in front of the war memorial levelled and covered 45 with gravel with large areas of purchased turf placed on either side of

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the gravel sections. Many good size trees with wrought iron protective cages were also planted.

NZTA then took over the area directly between our apartment and the 5 Te Papa annex after removing all of the broken asphalt, concrete and trash left by skateboarders, used to have drunken parties there at night. It was charming. They built a large and working storage area which was graded, paved with a number of offices.

10 The whole area was fenced with a very substantial metal fence over two metres high. Last August National changed their mind and decided it would be too embarrassing to host the 1915 memorial services with a motorway running through the centre of the ceremony, so all the work that had been done, mostly paid for by Wellington taxpayers needed to 15 be removed along with NZTA‟s work staging area.

Now there's time pressure so there will be lots of overtime work, a greater expense. Mistakes are much more likely to be made when work is rushed. For example there was a very impressive geyser that was 20 about 25 metres tall a couple of weeks ago when it hit a pipe in Tasman Street so the new park will provide good photo opportunities. I was told that large and of course expensive trees will be planted.

If the park had been planned, landscaping would have been quite 25 mature in seven years. Now NZTA‟s goal is to build a ugly efficient and unnecessary unwanted flyover next to the Basin Reserve. It is unfortunately a real possibility that areas near the Kapiti motorway could become nearly as desolate as Memorial Park has been for the last few years. 30 The deterioration of neighbourhoods after 80 families have been forced to move is bound to happen, although it is planned to rent some of these homes. Tenants will have no interest in keeping up properties that will be torn down. Owners of nearby properties that have lost a lot 35 of their value will not have the resources or the energy to keep up their unsaleable properties either. Result, instant slum and I can see this in Las Angeles, wherever they put freeways through area that is habited, it is all slum areas.

40 NZTA planning, commuters including us one day a week have been very upset at the lengthy delays caused by the road resurfacing at Paekakariki. Supposedly, according to the signs this work was planned to minimise disruption of traffic, of course you have read in the paper and heard about all the delays that have been the last week from this. 45

Kapiti Coast 17.01.13 Page 2380

What will happen to traffic flow when thousands of truckloads of peat to be removed and gravel to be brought in imported from elsewhere since nearby quarries will not have sufficient materials will be using the state highway also. 5 Future of Kapiti, the Western Link Road, SR1 road improvements would make Kapiti a much better place in which to live. This type of environment would be very attractive to knowledge based industries which would give Kapiti some of the higher wage environmentally 10 friendly jobs that the area really needs.

Sir Noel Robinson a long supporter of the motorway has been hailed as a hero for building a so called business park by the airport in Paraparaumu. So far all that has been built is another shopping centre 15 duplicating existing stores that provides mostly low wage sales clerk jobs. Sir Robinson stated that Kapiti could become another Gold Coast if there were good motorway access. Not likely with New Zealand‟s unpredictable weather.

20 How many Kapiti Coast residents would like to see their homes with glitzy high rise hotels with terrible occupancy rates, also part of the Gold Coast. For most Kapiti residents the small town feel, the closeness to nature and the unhurried lifestyle are why we live here.

25 Pain and suffering caused by the motorway before the ground has even been broken. The rationale for the Kapiti motorway is all about increased speed and so called economic growth, but the BCR estimates range from NZTA‟s official 00.92 to as low as 0.2 according to a leaked study done by BECA who was hired by NZTA. 30 How much is the pain and suffering of hundreds families already caused by this motorway worth? The stress is called illness, alcohol abuse and even divorces and the road has not even be started yet. Unfortunately I have personal experience with this. 35 [4.21 pm]

On December 13 I attended the EPA hearings and was moved to tears by Nick Fisher‟s testimony, given just three weeks after this triple 40 bypass surgery. At the end of the hearing I decided to drive around Otaihanga to look closer at the motorway route.

I stopped to make a right turn across Mazengarb to Ratanui and saw a huge double trailer truck waiting to turn right from Mazengarb. Well, I 45 am nearly certain that I looked for approaching traffic, I remember being fixated on the huge size of the truck and how enormous it would

Kapiti Coast 17.01.13 Page 2381

be crossing nine metres above Te Moana Road. I was then hit on the front right side of my partner‟s car at high speed by a car that I had never even seen. However, I had not actually started my turn because then I would have been hit on the left size. It‟s still under discussion 5 who was responsible for this but my partner‟s car was totalled.

The other driver had no injuries and could drive her car out of the intersection. Because I was suffering severe chest and some neck pain the paramedics took to by ambulance to Wellington Hospital. The 10 accident was a severe shock to me since, in over 50 years of driving hundreds of thousands of miles, I had never had an accident – where I was driving anyway.

Stress is very dangerous and debilitating. The size and enormous 15 footprint of the motorway are totally out of scale for our communities, not to mention the huge cost. While roading improvements in Kapiti are long overdue, please, please let there be an affordable, both in monetary, social and environmental, cost solution. A Kiwi Kapiti solution not an LA or Auckland solution. Thank you. 20 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Mr Harding? Mr Harding, I understood this to be a submission.

MR HARDING: Yes. 25 CHAIRPERSON: It is described here as “evidence”.

MR HARDING: Oh, well, that‟s - - -

30 CHAIRPERSON: Should I change that to “submission”?

MR HARDING: Yes, please.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. 35 MR HARDING: I copied some other one I saw.

CHAIRPERSON: Just when you are ready.

40 MR HARDING: My full name is John Richard Harding. I‟m a civil engineering consultant with more than 40 years experience. I have an honours degree in civil engineering from the University of Canterbury and a master of engineering science and environmental engineering from the University of New South Wales. 45

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I wish to draw to the attention of the Board of Inquiry two specific issues that I am concerned about. Firstly, the design overflow rate from the Waikanae River into the Waimeha Stream and, secondly, the traffic growth assumptions that NZTA experts have provided to support the 5 application.

The current Kapiti Coast District Plan shows a Waimeha Stream corridor running across my property at 21 Field Way. I submitted an OIA request to Greater Wellington Regional Council to establish the 10 flood flow calculated for the stream corridor that runs across our property. And I refer to district plan change 50, 2004.

Greater Wellington Regional Council has provided information showing that the design flow at the stream mouth is 123 cumecs. This 15 design flow is largely attributed to overflow from the Waikanae River upstream of the proposed expressway.

The information provided to me by Greater Wellington states that 80 of the 123 cumecs enters the Waimeha Stream at Te Moana Road and this 20 flow is attributed to stopbank breaching. Technical Report 22 Assessment of Hydrology and Storm Effects, from the NZTA expressway application to the EPA, provides a November 2011 update to this 2001 Greater Wellington figure. River Edge Consulting Ltd‟s report Hydraulic Impacts of M2PP Expressway (Mazengarb Stream to 25 Waikanae River) addresses Waikanae River breaches in appendix D of the REC report.

[4.26 pm]

30 The NZTA application, based on updated modelling, now gives a peak Waikanae River breach flow of 23 cumecs for a 200 year flow event with a 60 metre long breach in the Chillingworth stopbank, as noted on Page 46 of the River Edge Consulting Report.

35 The outflow into the Waimeha stream for this event, into the upper Waimeha stream, is 20 cumecs as shown in figure D-11 of the REC report. I understand that the expressway/Te Moana interchange will be designed to accommodate this flow.

40 The Kapiti Coast District Council has recently, in November 2012, published its draft district plan. The stream corridor across my land has not changed and still reflects the full 80 cumec contribution from a Waikanae River overflow.

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I have been advised by Greater Wellington Senior Engineer, Sharon Westlake, that Waimeha Stream remodelling work will not be completed in time to inform the current district plan review.

5 The design overflow rate from the Waikanae River into the Waimeha Stream is clearly a significant issue for the NZTA expressway designers, as it is for property owners affected by district plan stream corridors over their land. The massive inconsistency between assumptions supporting the expressway application and that supporting 10 the Kapiti Coast District Council‟s Draft District Plan needs to be resolved.

I note that Sharon Westlake has recommended that an independent technical review of the overflow modelling be carried out. I support 15 this recommendation.

I now move on to New Zealand vehicle fleet statistics.

The report “New Zealand Light Vehicle Fleet” was first published by 20 the Ministry of transport in September 2007. It pulled together for the first time a range of estimates of statistics used by the Ministry of Transport. The 2007 report gave vehicle fleet statistics for the period 2000 to 2006 inclusive, and the data have been updated annually ever since. 25 The graphs provide a clear understanding of what is happening to the New Zealand vehicle fleet. I have selected a number of graphs to illustrate a number of key points which are:

30 1. Car ownership per 1,000 population grew rapidly between years 2000 and 2006, to reach around 700 per 1,000 population. This graph from the 2007 report shows it just going over the 700 per 1,000 – that is cars and light vans.

35 The next graph shows that this growth was driven by used imports, which peaked at nearly 160,000 units per year in the 2005 year.

The number of light vehicles reached 700 per 1,000 population, second in the world behind the USA, and this graph was prepared – is dated 40 2002, you will see that it is round about 650, New Zealand is coming third in the world at that point. Well, it actually went up to over 700 when it peaked.

The fourth graph, and this is all from the Ministry of Transport report, 45 shows that the average annual travel per vehicle is falling.

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The government has tightened emission standards for used imports. The price of used imports has increased, and we now import only around 80,000 used vehicles per year. So if we go back to this we see that there has been a major change in the number of cars we are putting 5 on our roads.

[4.31 pm]

Total vehicles entering the fleet peaked in 2005 at 260,000 per annum. 10 It is currently running at around 160,000 per annum.

The New Zealand light vehicle ownership per thousand has started to fall, and so you can see the peak, it got up to 700 and now it‟s drooping downwards, and that trend could well head back to what Australia's 15 got, for example, roundabout 550 cars per thousand. We don‟t know how far it‟s going to fall, but it is falling, and we're not putting cars on the road fast enough to replace our large fleet.

The average age of the fleet is rising. At 13 years the average age is 20 higher by international standards. So you can see I‟ve put a red ring around where the fleet age is going, and it‟s rapidly trending upwards, so the average age is 13 years. The average age of used imported vehicles on our roads, as per the latest report from the Ministry of Transport which came out in March 2012, is approaching 15 years. So 25 the Japanese imports average car on our roads is 15 years old.

Almost 40 percent of the vehicles on our roads are more than 15 years old.

30 And this final graph shows what‟s happening to car numbers in New Zealand. So you will see that the fleet – the light vehicle fleet has stopped growing. We know it‟s growing older. It is only the low numbers of vehicles being taken off the road that has prevented the fleet from shrinking. 35 The availability of cheap Japanese used imports is likely to be seen historically as a one-off event. It has caused in New Zealand light vehicle fleet to become bloated and the fleet is now starting to shrink – and I would put money on that. 40 Now the next topic I want to cover is “peak oil”. We all know that oil production will peak one day, the only question is “when”. Today‟s price of Brent North Sea Oil is more than $110 per barrel. Given that Europe is in recession and the United States economy is in trouble, 45 $110 per barrel is a remarkably high figure. It signals that the rate of supply is limited and one can only wonder what would happen to the

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price of oil when and if the economies of Europe and the United States recover.

The internationally energy agencies chief economist, Fata Borrell, has 5 worn that the output of conventional oil will peak in 2020. It is clear that a combination of rising demand and a flat supply outlook will lead to escalating oil prices.

Now this slide I put up reflects the Australian Government Department 10 of Infrastructure Transport, Regional Development and Local Governments report, “Transport Energy Futures Long Term Oil Supplied Trends and Projections. This report (the BATA report, 11, 7 March 2009) by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics) is 417 pages long and is impressively comprehensive. 15 The authors of this report have examined the oil production prospects of over 40 countries in regions around the world as a preliminary to delineating the scope of the oil depletion challenge. The report states (and this is a direct quote): “Given the growth in deep and non- 20 conventional oil, balancing the shallow decline in conventional production, it is predicted that we have entered about 2006 onto a slightly upward slanting plateau in potential oil production that will last only to about 2016, eight years from now - that was in 2008.

25 [4.36 pm]

For the next eight years it is likely that world crude oil production will plateau in the face of continuing economic growth. After that, the modelling is forecast in what can be called the 2017 drop off. 30 The outlook, under a base case scenario is for a long decline in oil production to begin in 2017, which will stretch to the end of the century and beyond.

35 Projected increases in deep water and non-conventional oil, which are rate constrained in ways that conventional oil is not, will not change this pattern.

The Australian government report, BITA 117 goes on to say “thus at 40 some point beyond 2017 we must begin to cope with a longer term task of replacing oil as a source of energy. Given the inertias inherent in energy systems and vehicle fleets the transition will necessarily be challenging to most economics around the world.

45 The BITA 117 report has predicted that the drop off will occur in 2017, only four years away. If the report is correct, and there is no reason to

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believe that it is not correct, the timing of the construction of the proposed expressway will coincide with the drop off in a most unfortunate manner.

5 Next topic, historic traffic growth on State Highway One.

Andrew Murray has provided traffic evidence to this Board of Inquiry. Figure 3 from his evidence, which I have attached, shows that traffic volumes north of MacKays Crossing are now running at the same level 10 as they were in 1999. There has been no overall growth during the past 14 years and the trend is now downwards.

Figure 4 from Andrew‟s evidence shows his assumption that traffic growth on State Highway One north of Paraparaumu will defy the 15 historic trend and kick up. He has provided no evidence to support his prediction.

In my view his growth prediction is unlikely to eventuate for the following reasons: The cost of running a car is already high and it is 20 going up. The New Zealand economy is stagnant. The cost of used imports has risen significantly and is still rising. We already have more cars than we can afford. The vehicle fleet has not grown since 2007, is aging and is about to start shrinking. The railway has electrified to Waikanae, the Waikanae carpark is full, and it is a reasonable bet that 25 electrification will be extended further before too long.

Finally, Andrew has taken no account of the implications of peak oil on the price of petrol or on the economy generally.

30 In conclusion, transport planning should recognise we are heading into a high oil price future. The focus should be on improved public transport on separate cycleways and on walking, as per the Western Link Road, which I support.

35 The NZTA proposal to divide three distinct communities with an expressway is an unfortunate step backwards that is likely to be regretted forever if this Board of Inquiry grants consent.

Thank you. 40 CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.

COMMISSIONER BUNTING: I have got a question. What are you looking to us to do in respect of this discrepancy between the flood estimates 45 that you‟ve set out? You said that Sharon Westlake‟s recommended an

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independent technical review et cetera. I‟m not quite sure where we fit into this.

MR HARDING: Well, I am supporting her recommendation that there be an 5 independent technical review. You know, frankly I like the flood estimation that the expressway engineers have come up with because it should mean that the district plan, the stream corridor, should be taken off our land, but to get the two Council‟s to acknowledge this is proving impossible, so I want to just draw it to a more public forum. 10 COMMISSIONER BUNTING: What are the consequences of the difference for you?

[4.41 pm] 15 MR HARDING: We have a beachfront property. The land value is over $500,000. The improvement value is $20,000. The bach is away from the beachfront. We are not able to build on where we want to on the beachfront because of the stream corridor. It badly devalues our 20 property.

COMMISIONER BUNTING: But from our point of view we are here to consider the application for a designation for the expressway. How can we impact on this dilemma for you? 25 MR HARDING: I would hope that you would take a close interest in the hydrology and the overflow from the Waikanae River into Waimeha Stream and I see it as almost an approval of the work that has been put up if the Board accepts the evidence. 30 CHAIRPERSON: But it could do more than strengthen your position with the councils. We cannot direct the council on this hearing.

MR HARDING: I concur with that totally, yes. 35 CHAIRPERSON: So it would strengthen your position?

MR HARDING: Yes.

40 COMMISSIONER BUNTING: Okay, thank you for answering that.

MR APELDOORN: Just one small question. You have listed a number of reasons why traffic growth has not occurred in your view and it is quite an extensive list, one thought I guess comes to mind that what impact 45 do you think the current traffic congestion is having on limiting that growth, and then sort of beyond that what do you think would happen

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to traffic growth in the evident that the highway was put through, both this expressway and the Transmission Gully section?

MR HARDING: Well I believe that many people who commute into 5 Wellington commute in imported low value cars and they can afford to do this because the depreciation on those cars is very low. As the prices of the cars go up, both imported or if they go for a new alternative, depreciation becomes a far bigger factor so I think that is going to be the choke. You asked about congestion, I have commuted 10 a little bit in from Kapiti to Wellington. I live in Wellington and I have found in recent years it has been getting easier and easier to drive into Wellington, not harder and harder.

I have just noticed progressive improvements and it is becoming more 15 and more viable in a time sense to drive into Wellington from Kapiti. It is not harder so I just wonder the expressway is for commuters or is it for that peak holiday traffic and that is a question that floats around in my mind.

20 MR APELDOORN: If we just cast our minds forward to a situation where the highway including Transmission Gully is in place, given all of these others impacts that you have described as effects on commuting if you like, how do you see that inter relationship playing in terms of what expected traffic growth might be on the highway? 25 MR HARDING: I think the constriction in traffic growth on State Highway One is at the Wellington end. I live in Wellington and Wellington is actually full of cars. I think there are too many car parks there. I believe the government is moving to tax car parks. I would like to see 30 congestion charged. Wellington is literally full of cars. I do not see this is going to help commuters one iota, because the congestion is where State Highway One and Two meet and coming down the Western Hutt Road you just have to have a look at that and you can see where the problems are so this is too far out to help commuters. I think 35 it the same with Transmission Gully which I am very, very much against as well and I have written to the paper on a number of occasions, a total waste of money.

[4.46 pm] 40 I think that should be a two-lane road, and only hooking into Heyward‟s Hill Road and going no further, and that would provide the redundancy Wellington needs without spending a billion dollars to it, or 130 million dollars a year. 45 MR APELDOORN: Thank you.

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CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.

MR HARDING: Thank you. 5 CHAIRPERSON: Mr Groves? Afternoon.

MR GROVES: My name is David Groves. I have been granted a very late request to speak to a weak written submission. I am grateful for the 10 courtesy extended to me, and I wish to repay it by being as brief as possible. Please interrupt me after 12 minutes,

A question arose during last Monday‟s session on what constitutes international best practice in regard to mitigations, and it was that 15 question that has prompted me to speak. For 30 years I headed the Italian department or sectional programme in the now school of languages and literatures at Victoria University.

For over 11 years now I have worked as a professional translator of 20 non-literary text, almost all my work is for clients in Italy. So in my modest way, I‟m an exporter working from home in Paekakariki.

In this time I‟ve also delivered a whole course to Auckland University online, so I am an example of a changing pattern of working situations, 25 which is big on the Kapiti Coast, and which is a factor in assessing future transport requirements.

May I make it clear, that I oppose in full the construction of the expressway on the route proposed? As soon as one begins to argue 30 about details of and possible mitigations to the proposed expressway, is in danger of being drawn into seeming acquiescence, as we seek to make the best of a bad job.

I personally cannot figure out the process whereby a proposed 35 seemingly approved local road, the western link, suddenly morphs into an expressway, while a state highway located far from the coast, which is four lanes in many sections, becomes a local road. The sudden change has confused, shocked, indeed traumatised a lot you will have some impression of what proportion of residents on the Kapiti Coast. 40 If this were Italy, this would be a clear example of decisionism, an irrational decision taken by a politician who wants to appear strong and virile like a renaissance Pope or Mussolini or Roberto Sicconi. This is not how things are done in New Zealand, and the existence of this 45 Board of Inquiry shows that the decisions and the process are being scrutinised, and I thank you for that.

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I share a fear, which I know has been expressed here, that the money for intended mitigations will run out, and I believe that detailed mitigation costs should be factored very precisely indeed into the 5 preliminary overall cost benefit analysis. In the strict sense, however, I consider that the proposed expressway is not susceptible to mitigation, because of its location slashing through the coastal strip. Buffers to mitigate sound pollution added to the height of the motorway will create a structure in some places, six, nine metres high, thus increasing 10 visual pollution and having the effect of spreading atmospheric pollution over a wider area.

My experience of Europe, of Italy in particular, tells me that a motorway can, or at least could in the 20th century, be a thing of 15 beauty, if designed and engineered properly. But only if located away from inhabited areas, and certainly not when bisecting a community.

My own experience of motorways is driver and habitant is fairly substantial, I‟ve walked extensively in Europe, so well know that noise 20 can carry for up to eight kilometres, depending on the terrain and conditions. I taught for four years in the University of Genoa so I am well acquainted with the transport problems and solutions of LaGuardia, the strip of coastal land extending from the French border to the Chateau (INDISTINCT 4.54) and the border with Tuscany, and 25 the key distinction between local roads and expressways.

[4.51 pm]

For 24 years we lived in Barnard Street in Wadestown choosing the 30 harbour view despite the concomitant noise from motorway and railway below. A granddaughter of mine lived with her very young child in Ranui Heights while attending Whitireia College. So I know the difficulties of negotiating, often without a car and with a pushchair, that barrier of the motorway in Porirua. 35 In my professional capacity I have translated a number of texts relating to transport, particularly rail. Although my only translation of a lengthy environmental impact report has dealt with a power station but I have also dealt with translated texts about wind farms and so on. 40 These might at least have an indicative relevance to an expressway although I appreciate the difference between wind farms and expressway. The translation of the initial documents and then of the various responses to the mitigations required lasted for over a year in 45 one case. I was astonished and linguistically tested by the amount and

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detail of the information over an extraordinary range of fields, even in the edition of non-technical summaries which could be extremely long.

Just as an example, which caught my eye when I look back at this, of 5 the sort of detail that is required in non-technical reports in Europe. My eye alighted on the following passage which I will gabble through. “It is proposed to plant trees with high trunks to form a green curtain plus a hedge two to 2.5 metres high. To obtain good cover from a distance it is necessary for the trees to reach a height of 20 to 25 10 metres. The plan is to plant a double curtain of poplars and firs. A satisfactory time for growth in relation to the life of the installation is calculated as six years. If planting took place at the beginning of the construction work that would save the two years for completing the building stage. Poplars reach a height of 25 metres in six to seven 15 years while firs grow more slowly. To attenuate the visual impact, also for a person passing close by 20 metres distant, it is necessary to surround the perimeter with a thick hedge some two to 2.5 metres high.”

20 I was particularly struck by the prominent position given in the preliminary documentation to social capital and to public health. And also that one of the requirements, as regards mitigation at least in industrial, I have got little experience myself of translating environmental impact reports on infrastructure, but the requirements of 25 mitigation had to meet the local requirements. Thus a company that was building a power station in Italy was required to use its expertise and equipment to lower the pollution levels of the local water which was above European standards because of the local tanning industry. That being Europe, there was are always very extensive sections on the 30 EU regulatory and legal framework and a translator has to become extremely adept at sifting through European directives and documents of all kinds in the official languages.

I have, in the limited time I‟ve given myself, brought up, scanned and 35 read a number of European documents relating to new motorways in general and with reference to two particular new proposed motorways or motorway slip roads. I‟ve looked closely at the 37 page noise impact report for a link road in the province of Rome and for another in north-west Italy. 40 The European Commission‟s position on the environment is that all new industrial and infrastructural projects should, as far as possible, constitute an improvement overall in all forms of existing pollution. So a detailed comparison has to be made with the situation prior to any 45 alteration or introduction. I may be wrong, and if so I apologise, but it appears to me that a detailed comparison of the existing levels of

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atmospheric, visual and noise pollution on State Highway 1, with those projected for the expressway, has not been carried out. If not that‟s seems to me, measured against European practice and requirements, an extraordinary omission. 5 The Commission‟s environmental noise directive is numbered 2002/49/47 with an implementation report coming out in 2011. As regards noise the Commission‟s website notes, “Environmental noise has traditionally had a different priority compared to environmental 10 problems such as air and water pollution because solutions were often considered best handled at the national or local levels.

[4.56 pm]

15 In the 20th Century EU regulations on noise management were based on international market objectives. As more information about the health impacts of noise become available, the need for a higher level of protection of EU citizens became more imminent.

20 I note from the details prescription for an advanced course in environmental noise at University in Rome, that for a new motorway in Italy, the distance directly affected by noise pollution is now considered to be 500 metres.

25 In her equity-focused health impact assessment Dr O‟Sullivan notes that 2,860 families will live within 400 metres of the proposed expressway. She clearly demonstrates, at lease in my opinion, that the NZTA‟s treatment of the health impacts of noise is seriously deficient.

30 As the century progresses we should be able to develop increasingly sophisticated modelling of costs and benefits incorporating far more variables, whereas cost:benefit ratios now tend to focus crudely on the narrowly focused economic criteria, though indeed the cost: benefit ratio for the expressway appears extraordinarily low. 35 What has enraged me most personally in the marketing of the expressway was the total silent video of the expressway that was shown for months in Coastlands. I could not have expected them to broadcast the roar of traffic through the shopping mall, but it would not have been 40 difficult to provide headphones of traffic noise, varying say between 52 and 67 decibels, at distances of 100, 200 and 500 metres, to indicate how the expressway would be experienced on the ground, not from the air.

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As it was the video seemed to me, in my more enraged moments, to come perilously close to deliberately dishonest marketing in terms of the fair trading act.

5 Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr Groves. Any questions?

MS PAINE: No, thank you, sir. 10 COMMISSIONER BUNTING: No, thank you.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Half a minute over. Very well done. Mr McKenzie, Mrs Greive has not returned? 15 MR MCKENZIE: That‟s correct.

CHAIRPERSON: You could advise her that we will hear her first tomorrow if she wishes to attend. All right? So we will adjourn till 9.30 tomorrow 20 morning, thank you.

MATTER ADJOURNED AT 4.59 PM UNTIL FRIDAY, 18 JANUARY 2013

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