‘Hell of a frustration’: No funds for Whale Trail’s Elevation section

Funding to build a challenging section of the 200km Whale Trail near Picton has disappeared after a change in Government policy.

The group behind the cycling and walking track that stretches from Kaikōura to Picton, last year celebrated the completion of a new 3km stretch from The Elevation, near Picton, south to Lindens Rd.

But the rest of the elevation site, going over the hill to Picton beside State Highway 1, was to be completed by the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA).

Nigel Muir had asked councillors in June if they could remind the Government it was in charge of that 1.7km leg of the project.

“We are almost five years in and we don't have a trail up The Elevation,” Muir said.

“It's not the Whale Trail’s responsibility, it's Waka Kotahi. They're doing the design, they're doing the cost, and they're doing the construction.”

The council did just that at a regional transport committee meeting on July 30, when they asked an NZTA representative about the funding for that site.

Minutes from that meeting said that Mark Owen, NZTA lower North Island/top of the south regional manager, advised that the area had not met the criteria for the current round of funding.

An application could be lodged again, as long as it was in line with the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport, the minutes said.

When the NZTA was asked what this meant, Emma Speight, director of regional relationships for Wellington and the top of the south, said they had been working with the Whale Trail Trust on a number of sections of the trail.

“Since 2020, we have assisted with various sections of the trail where it intersects with the state highway, including design and construction work for the Waima Bridge clip-on and funding and construction of the cycleway at Tuamarina.”

Options for the elevation section were first investigated in 2019.

“It was determined that a safe and attractive route within this section of the trail could not be built within previously allocated funding.

“Consequently, we investigated whether further funding could be obtained from the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF).”

Speight said “at this time” the project was not prioritised for NLTF funding as it did not demonstrate a “high level of alignment” with the Government’s Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS), which set out priorities for NZTA funding every three years.

She said they had been clear that funding from the NLTF could not be guaranteed but if the Whale Trail Trust received funding from a different source, they would discuss support for the project in line with current “GPS priorities".

Muir told Local Democracy Reporting the Whale Trail trust was aware of the situation and was in the process of working through some of the details with NZTA.

Part of that could include finding funds from elsewhere, he said.

“The elevation is a critical part of the Whale Trail project, not only for completing the trial, but also from a health and safety perspective for getting people up the elevation,” he said.

“On projects of this scale you get challenges and setbacks and frustrations. Our job is to mediate our way through that, and work through solutions and and continue on with completing what's going to be a fantastic community asset.”

At a full council meeting last month, when the minutes from the transport committee meeting were signed off, mayor Nadine Taylor said the lack of funding was “really concerning” and had led to a “significant loss of momentum”.

“For what is, ironically, a project that the Government has invested in.”

Deputy mayor David Croad called it a “hell of a frustration”.

He said having to redo the work to the new Government Policy Statement was double the work, double the time and a double up of costs.

“And then to hear representatives of NZTA today say that the Whale Trail part hasn’t met the funding criteria when this has been on the go for a very long time is just an example of these changes which are highly frustrating.

“I could go on for hours about many other things we have applied to across council where change of governments have cost our ratepayers significant amounts of money by virtue of that.”

The "shovel-ready" Whale Trail project was given $18m in funding from the government's regional economic development organisation Kānoa - RDU in 2020.

Muir in June said they were aiming to “accelerate” construction rapidly in the coming year.

About $9m had been spent on the project to date, of $28m budgeted.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.