Staff Reporters
24 July 2024, 5:00 PM
An Otago Regional Council (ORC) councillor says she is “delighted” Upper Clutha ratepayers will not pay the same targetted public transport rate as Queenstown.
In ORC’s draft Long Term Plan (LTP) the council had proposed that ratepayers across Queenstown Lakes should pay a targetted rate for public transport, even though the Upper Clutha would not receive any public transport services.
The LTP was approved on June 27 after public consultation and the Upper Clutha’s inclusion in the targetted public transport rate was removed.
“I knew that wouldn’t fly and I was delighted to see that it didn’t,” Dunstan councillor Alexa Forbes told the Wānaka App.
“This is what happens when people engage with the plan - the council listens.”
However, the Upper Clutha hasn’t gotten out of contributing to public transport entirely.
The council approved the introduction of a general rate allocation for public transport, which all ratepayers in Otago will pay.
Alexa said this shifted 20 percent of the public transport rate to “everyone in Otago - we did that on the basis of climate change benefit”.
She said councillors felt it was fair that everyone in the region contributes “a little bit” to public transport.
She acknowledged it was “really tricky” finding the most equitable solution.
Alexa highlighted another win for Upper Clutha in the final LTP.
Instead of a public transport trial in the Upper Clutha, as proposed in the draft LTP, the final LTP instead includes a business case for public transport in Wānaka.
“It’s a real advantage that we’ve moved from a trial to a business case,” Alexa said. “We won’t have to put the Upper Clutha through another trial.”
Two public transport shuttle bus trials, in 2022 and 2023, were co-ordinated by Wānaka’s Community LINK and delivered by Yello, with funding from Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) and Lake Wānaka Tourism.
The trials showed that an express service between Hāwea and Wānaka gained in numbers while use of an intra-city loop remained lower. Analysis of survey data showed that approximately 60 percent of respondents would otherwise have travelled by car.
Read more: Useful data gathered from public transport trial
PHOTO: Supplied