Marlborough residents keen to see port redevelopment get underway after years of disruption

Source: Radio New Zealand

It is clear that many people in Marlborough just want to see work get underway on the port redevelopment ahead of the new ferries arriving, after years of disrupted services.

The Marlborough District Council is seeking feedback on whether to lend the port $110 million for its share of the Picton ferry redevelopment, and there is broad support among those who have weighed in on the proposal.

The money would come from the Local Government Funding Agency and go towards the Waitohi Ferry Redevelopment Project which was estimated to cost $531m, with the government funding the rest.

The council has said debt would be at no additional cost to ratepayers, with the port to pay back the loan, including interest, while also paying its annual dividend to the council.

At a public meeting held in Picton on Wednesday, many expressed support for the proposal. More than 80 percent of the submissions published online were also in favour of the council financing Port Marlborough’s share of the project.

Aileen Walker has lived in the port town for 40 years and said having a resilient link across the Cook Strait was vital, but admitted that the $110m cost made her “gulp”.

“Numbers like that make our minds go bananas, it’s a huge sum of money but it has to be spent. We need this and it’s not just in Picton that we need it, but we need it to link the two islands together.”

She said she was devastated when the former ferry project was canned, because of the money that had already been spent on preparation work in Picton.

Last May, it was revealed that $39.1m had already been been spent on investments at the Picton port as part of the iRex (Inter-Island Resilient Connection) project which included a new terminal and walkways, a new mechanical depot and an upgraded culvert.

Walker said she understood why the government scrapped the former ferries, but said the way it was managed was “hopeless” and the half finished upgrade left Picton in “absolute chaos”.

Dublin Street had been closed for over a year so underground services could be moved and an overbridge built as part of the iRex project, but it was shelved before the bridge was built.

“It’s going to be chaos again, but at least it’ll be positive chaos. We’ll know it’s leading somewhere that is going to benefit everybody,” Walker said.

‘Everyone’s ready to just get cracking’

Blenheim resident Henry Voordouw was also supportive of the loan and said he was not worried about the price tag.

“It’ll either cost $110m or it will cost $200m, everything seems to double these days.”

He said the ferries were run down and becoming less reliable.

“It’s disappointing that that has been allowed to happen and we’re stuck with it now, but we have to do something otherwise they just seem to run off track and have all these sorts of breakdowns.

“You want tourists to travel on these ships, they don’t want to have to put their lives in danger. It’s bad enough for us, the locals, to have to put up with that, let alone bloody tourists.”

Cliff Bowers, a longtime Picton resident and former Marlborough district councillor, said the loan made sense – given the port is a council controlled organisation.

But he was concerned about what it could mean for Marlborough’s assets if the council was forced to amalgamate, as per the government’s regional council shake up.

“We don’t know what they’re going to force onto us. I just hope that they don’t make us amalgamate with Wellington, that would cripple us.”

Julia Kennedy moved back to Picton a few years ago after living in Australia and said she supported the proposal, as creating a more resilient link across the Cook Strait was a “no-brainer”.

“It’s a bottleneck for everybody, for the whole country. Freight-wise and it’s obviously really important in terms of moving people.

“It’s the lifeblood of lots of small towns from Picton all the way down to the larger centres.

“I think everyone’s ready to just get cracking and get it rolling. Let’s start seeing some shiny new boats and being able to have some faith and some trust in our transport infrastructure again.”

Out of 49 submissions on the proposal to finance Port Marlborough’s share of the project, 41 were in support.

Those against the proposal cited concerns over adding to council debt, the shifting of risk to ratepayers and the suitability of the repayment terms.

“The push for upgraded ferry infrastructure is being driven at a national level, not by Marlborough ratepayers. It is unreasonable that local ratepayers are expected to underwrite a $110 million investment to support what is effectively a national transport objective,” one submitter said.

A long wait for a port upgrade

Work began on the iRex project in late 2022, with plans for a new ferry terminal building, a new wharf and passenger walkway, a new rail yard, new vehicle boarding, and an overbridge in Dublin St over the railway lines, to improve traffic flow through the town when larger ferries were in port.

But by December 2023, the government announced the project was being canned after costs had quadrupled from $775m in 2018 to about $3 billion in 2023.

It was revealed last year that the total cost for the scrapped project was $671m, which included $449m spent on landside infrastructure, project management and wind-down costs, and $222m total paid to the South Korean shipbuilders, Hyundai Mipo Dockyards, including for a previous deposit and the settlement.

Ferry Holdings was established by the government last March, to lead the revised Cook Strait ferry programme, bringing together vessel design, port infrastructure, and national transport requirements under a single entity.

Marlborough mayor Nadine Taylor said there was a sense of deja-vu given the council had previously agreed, after consultation, to lend the same amount to the port under the former iRex project.

“Essentially, a lot of it’s the same, it’s two ferries, it’s new port [infrastructure], the roading infrastructure is very similar, the proposal is for an overbridge again which is really important to the people of Picton.”

She said so far, the submissions council had received showed support for the loan.

“A lot of people are saying to me, we’ve been here before, let’s just keep moving, let’s keep going forward with this.”

Ferry Holdings chair Chris Mackenzie said once the council had made its decision, the company would finalise agreements so contractors could start work.

He said there had already been demoliton work done at both ports, and the aim was to start building new infrastructure by mid-year, with a completion date of December 2028.

Port Marlborough CEO Rhys Welbourn said its focus during the redevelopment was to build a new wharf that would allow vessels to come in, berth safely and load and unload efficiently.

He said new vessels, no matter what size, required new infrastructure.

“Picton is vital for New Zealand’s supply chain, not many people realise, but New Zealand relies on the infrastructure at Waitohi/Picton, every day.

“Every day we have ferries coming, unloading and loading, so it’s really important that we get that right.”

A public meeting is being held in Blenheim on Thursday night and consultation closes on 19 May, with the council to make a decision on 26 May.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand