Hutt News, March 10 2015 Wellington’s mayors delivered a resounding knockback to the New Zealand Transport Agency and their own chief executives on Monday, despite a threat. The Regional Transport Committee had been due to debate supporting a new highway from Petone to Grenada along with a link road down Takapu Valley to Transmission Gully. A Committee of the chief executives of the region’s councils had produced a report recommending that the committee get behind the road and request that some aspects of its construction be accelerated. But deputy chairman Paul Swain, supported by Wellington representative Andy Foster, threw a spanner in the works with a motion calling for more information. He was scathing about the detail in chief executive’s’ report supporting the Takapu Valley extension. It was a $60-million decision, he said. Before making a decision of that scale there needed to be a clear understanding of what was to be done, what need was to be met, and what the cost and benefits were. “Basically this is a fireside chat. It is not a robust analysis,” he said. “In my view a court would say ‘how could they make this decision today on the basis of a three page report that had no detailed analysis?’ There were two higher tranposrt priorities in the region – a cross valley link road for the Hutt Valley and fixing ‘the fiasco at Melling”, he said. Porirua Mayor Nick Leggett and Hutt Mayor Ray Wallace tried to get a commitment to support the project but their alternative motion failed. New Zealand Transport Agency representative Raewyn Bleakley said she would not vote on the subject but delaying support could mean the whole project’s funding was in jeopardy. In any case the committee’s decision was not that important. “It will ultimately be the New Zealand Transport Agency board that makes the decision on Petone to Grenada,” she said. Committee chairwoman Fran Wilde was clear she had heard a threat from Bleakley. “I am sad to hear the highways team at the New Zealand Transport Agency saying that without a decision on this add-on, and it is an add-on, we can’t proceed with the rest of the project,” she said. The highway had been in the planning for years but the Takapu Valley extension had been a late addition last year. “It turns out it is not an optional extra. I think that is what I heard Raewyn Bleakley say,” Wilde said.