Toni van Tonder from the Devonport Takapuna Local Board says upgrades such as dedicated transit lanes and cycleways have been planned for eight years, but are now at risk. Photo: RNZ / Amy Williams
Businesses in the Auckland suburb of Devonport are gutted that long-awaited upgrades to the gridlocked main road are on the chopping block with the loss of the regional fuel tax.
Lake Road is the one road into the peninsula and the planned improvements would have shaved 12 minutes off the commute to and from Takapuna.
But the project is among 14 that are now being whittled down to just three when the fuel tax ends in July, scrapping $600 million in funding.
Local Barbara Bradbury manages the clothing store Blue Illusion in Devonport and says traffic is the talk of the town.
"People talk about Lake Road all the time because a lot of people do experience it and a lot of the visitors who come to Devonport are definitely very frustrated by the constant hold ups."
There are two ways to get to Devonport - take a ferry from the city or drive in along Lake Road, a 5km two-lane route that 30,000 cars travel along each day.
Barbara Bradbury, Blue Illusion manager Photo: RNZ / Amy Williams
Bradbury said convincing courier drivers to deliver goods after 2pm was impossible, when the 20 minute drive can take up to an hour.
"I have had that from our delivery company, who have rung and said is it very important that the driver picks up today or could it wait till tomorrow. They definitely won't come after 2pm," she said.
"The longest it's taken me was over an hour one day which was in the morning but it can take an hour to get to Milford sometimes, you just have to sit in the traffic."
Auckland Transport (AT) planned to spend $23 million of the revenue collected from the regional fuel tax improving Lake Road, but that is going.
So is $243m for road safety programmes, $111m for cycleways and $69m for bus transit lanes, to name a few.
Mayor Wayne Brown said the city will lose out on $1.2 billion - $600m in fuel tax revenue - the other half is Waka Kotahi money tagged to the now canned projects.
Meanwhile, about half of AT's transport projects are funded by government, but the agency is still waiting to receive the new government policy statement on transport, which will set priorities.
The Ministry of Transport said the draft will be released for consultation within the next two weeks, the deadline being the government's first 100 days in office 8 March.
The final government policy statement on transport is due to be released by July.
Toni van Tonder from the Devonport Takapuna Local Board said upgrades which include dedicated transit lanes and cycleways, have been planned for eight years and gone through two rounds of consultation - and were due to start this year.
"It's a really awkward road, it narrows in places and then it goes wider in places so it's not consistent in terms of its throughput."
Van Tonder said Devonport town centre was struggling, despite enjoying cruise ship visitors over summer.
"Devonport town centre really suffers as a result of this main road. Businesses struggle to get skilled staff to work in Devonport, no-one wants to travel the road to get here, if you're visiting Devonport no one wants to get stuck in traffic just to get to the town centre, coming by ferry is an expensive outing for most families," she said.
"We do have a lot of vacancies in Devonport in the retail centre customer footfall is not there as we'd like it to be. Devonport is a special character area so we don't have a lot of infill housing or new people moving into the area, so we really are stuck."
Liz Sloan, co-owner of The Patriot Photo: RNZ / Amy Williams
The Patriot is a long-established bar on the suburb's main street that Liz Sloan and her husband bought five years ago.
"We are reliant on the locals...so if we don't have the structure for people coming into Devonport it makes it very hard."
She said they do get cruise ship visitors over summer, but Auckland residents know Lake Road can be a bottleneck.
"If I'm heading out of Devonport I'll go very early in the morning, I'm talking five or six o'clock in the morning...and after two o'clock you haven't got a chance of getting out of Devonport it's just a nightmare."
Sloan said the road needed investment.
"If we can get more lanes and traffic flowing through into Devonport it will make a difference. The problem is people are reluctant to come here because they know how long it takes to get here."
Van Tonder said since the government pulled the regional fuel tax, it needed to come up with another funding option for Auckland transport projects now missing out.
"I would really hope that the government has got some solutions because we'll be looking to them, as will all of the residents on the peninsula, for the answer."
She is due to meet with the North Shore MP Simon Watts on Friday.
As for getting to his office, just off Lake Road, she said it would depends on the timing.
"How long is a piece of string? Sometimes it might take you on a really good day 10 minutes max but it can take up to an hour."
