Green pathway: Peninsula’s loss is Milford’s gain

A long-planned walkway and cycleway connecting Hauraki with Esmonde Rd has been shelved in favour of a boardwalk alongside the Milford estuary.

The Devonport-Takapuna Local Board voted 5-1 to put $1 million towards the Milford project after Auckland Transport (AT) failed to guarantee funding for the Hauraki-to-Esmonde route.

The decision at last week’s monthly board meeting aimed to retain $1million of funding, which AT had told the board a week earlier might not be rolled over for 2023-24.

Board chair Toni van Tonder said the board did not want to see the money disappear from the community.

It still wanted the Francis St-Esmonde Rd pathway built in the future, but the uncertainty clouding its delivery prompted her to move the resolution transferring the funding to the Milford project.

Board member George Wood cast the sole vote against the transfer. He was concerned the board was being hasty and wanted a written memo from AT confirming its position.

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He said the board had acted in good faith in trying to deliver the Hauraki-Esmonde Rd path. If this could not be done, he wanted the board’s next annual allocation of $1.5 million spent on a selection of smaller road-safety projects.

Other board members considered the Milford option was a way of advancing a significant project that had also been on its priority list over several board terms. Deputy chair Terence Harpur said: “We want reallocations, so the community doesn’t keep missing out.”

Van Tonder said the board had been able to deliver very little from its share of the transport capital fund in recent years, given $3.8 million previously allocated to the Hauraki path had been cut under the Covid Emergency Budget.

Harpur said AT had suggested it could now cost $7-9 million, up from an earlier $5 million estimate. Both that and the Milford project –estimated at around $3 million – have only had high-level costings.

The board discussed other pathway impediments and uncertainties that AT had mentioned earlier, including AT’s own tight future budgets and the need for more engagement with mana whenua for a route that goes through a site of cultural significance.

Without extra money from AT, the board’s contribution was not enough to ensure its place on a future works construction programme, meaning money spent on more detailed design might be wasted.

Board members also raised the issue of a promised connection between the pathway and the Amaia apartment complex under development on Esmonde Rd. This link is now in doubt in revised plans for the development, which are under consideration by planning commissioners.

Van Tonder later told the Flagstaff the barriers to the Hauraki-to-Esmonde route were frustrating. “We still want this badly, but we can’t deliver it on our own.”

Pushing instead to carry over the board’s current-year allocation and combining it with next year’s money for a total of $2.5 million could go a long way towards the Milford project, she said.

“We’re just trying to deliver on one of these great opportunities.”