Andrew Dickens Afternoons

So I’ve been reflecting on the confusing case of the Transmission Gully tollsI said yesterday I thought that you can’t just slap on a toll unless you’ve signalled it from the start of the project. Which they had the chance to do.Wellingtonians were surveyed to find out whether they would mind a toll which would have sped the project up and it could have been delivered in 2006. And you know what? Wellingtonians were fine with that but the powers that be ignored that and funded it themselves. ‘So that’s that surely. A decision was made and now we’re about to get the road, albeit 14 years later.But now transport authorities and the Minister are considering tolling so that not too many people use it.Now here’s the thing. Transmission Gully is there to relieve the suburbs of Paremata, Plimmerton, Pukerua Bay and Paekakariki that currently have a two lane State Highway through the middle of them.It’s also necessary because it provides a third route out of Wellington, which could have easily found itself isolated in