No progress on Key memorial cycleway

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, May 24th, 2010 - 41 comments
Categories: cycleway, john key, spin - Tags:

I love that John Key is so desperate to show some progress on his memorial cycleway that he’s even going along to the opening of cycleways that aren’t funded with its money. On Sunday he showed up at the opening of a cycleway in Oamaru. The cycleway was funded by the council and NZTA.

Apart from giving a little cash to another cycleway that was being built anyway, nothing has happened on John Key’s great national cycleway plan. Remember, this was meant to be a recession-busting plan to create 4,000 jobs. The recession has been over for a year and not a single job has been created.

You might have noticed there was no mention of the cycleway in this year’s Budget. After all the hooting and hollering last year, the government has completely failed to deliver. Apparently, the special funding for the national cycleway has been canceled and DoC will have to pay for anything that is built out of its baseline instead of spending that money on conversation conservation.

This is what you get from a government that is all about spin, not about substance.

41 comments on “No progress on Key memorial cycleway ”

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  1. lprent 1
    24 May 2010 at 10:01 am

    Key is like a bag of chips. Big, bold, and bloated with hot air – with only a few dispirited chips inside

    • Jim Nald 1.1
      24 May 2010 at 2:25 pm

      can fool some people some of the time but ….

      captcha: switching
      perhaps our PM is the Master Switcher ?

  2. kriswgtn 2
    24 May 2010 at 10:05 am

    So wheres the money Key ????

  3. John 3
    24 May 2010 at 10:12 am

    “Apparently, the special funding for the national cycleway has been canceled and DoC will have to pay for anything that is built out of its baseline instead of spending that money on conversation.”

    And we can’t have substandard coversation!

  4. RascallyRabbit 4
    24 May 2010 at 10:12 am

    And now, everybody’s favourite, the Spin Cycle Fantastique trick! It’s a great piece of buffoonery if you pull it off, but if you blow it, you’ll look like a fool.

    JK tries the Spin Cycle trick again, but his pants get caught in the pedals and pulled off him

    Better burn that seat……

  5. Croc 5
    24 May 2010 at 10:14 am

    Apparently, the special funding for the national cycleway has been canceled and DoC will have to pay for anything that is built out of its baseline instead of spending that money on conversation.

    To be fair Marty, this is actually part of DoC’s statutory mandate: “to foster recreation and allow tourism, to the extent that use is not inconsistent with the conservation of any natural or historic resource.”

    A national cycleway fits under this definition quite nicely and I think DoC is the only department that could really be in control of this. Who else could it actually go to? No other department makes any sense in terms of national coordination.

    However, you are right in that DoC should receive extra funding. It has long been underfunded, well before National got back in and made further cuts.

    • Jim Nald 5.1
      24 May 2010 at 2:22 pm

      Hah! Key was not talking about the recession just past. He was talking about the next upcoming recession. Woo hoo.

      captcha: occasional

  6. Maynard J 6
    24 May 2010 at 10:36 am

    I wonder how this will work with DoC funding it. Will DoC charge an admission fee, or recoup their costs in some other fashion – the concession system comes to mind? Or are DoC being forced to spend conservation money in order to create a tourist attraction?

    In this case, I hope DoC try to get as much money out of it as possible, to repay the virtual theft of conservation money by National.

  7. tc 7
    24 May 2010 at 10:36 am

    No clearer example exists than this to show what an armchair ride Sideshow gets in the msm. Had Labour pulled the same shonky trick they’d be calling for heads to roll…….what a bunch of gutless hacks who fail to put this pathetic PM, Blinglish and the wrecking crew to the sword as they deserve to be.

    You can see why Sideshow refuses RadioNZ…..interesting to watch how bovver boy colemans new crew of board mates try to sort that little media hiccup out for them.

  8. Jono 8
    24 May 2010 at 10:48 am

    Approximately half of DOCs budget is for Visitor Assets (ie tracks, huts, camps, signage) so I would assument that the cycle way would be funded by deferring or cancelling other VA projects and/or potentially reducing/deferring maintenance on exisiting assets if they are pushed hard enough into moving money around between operating and captial spending.

    I would hope the later was unlikely, as up until 2007 when it stalled DOC was on a slow ramp up of funding to cover 90% of the full cost to maintain existing assets by 2012; This ramp up to realistically fund the maintenance of assets was a result of the Cave Creek tragedy.

    • Draco T Bastard 8.1
      24 May 2010 at 1:42 pm

      Ah, So NACT+MP are planning more Cave Creek Tragedies – gotcha.

  9. Bored 9
    24 May 2010 at 10:53 am

    Look at the bright side of this, we are spared a photoclip opportunity for Jonkster to cut the ribbon, followed by having to watch the lycra encased butts of Tolly and Brownlee receding on slowly wobbling bikes……..

  10. gobsmacked 10
    24 May 2010 at 12:14 pm

    Look at that photo of a man on a bike (Stuff link), with no helmet. I am shocked and appalled. Appalled, and shocked. Such blatant disregard for New Zealand law.

    Will John Key survive “Helmet-gate”? Will the police prosecute? This is a SCANDAL!!!!111!!

    (message cut and pasted from right-wing blogs, 1999-2008)

  11. Policy Parrot 11
    24 May 2010 at 12:38 pm

    “Here’s the Key to your cycle-way”.

  12. vto 12
    24 May 2010 at 1:11 pm

    Towns where cycleways are proposed or making active steps towards construction are in fact very excited about the effects these will have on their communities. All positive. Good politics.

    Perhaps there are none proposed for Wellington.

  13. kriswgtn 13
    24 May 2010 at 8:16 pm

    It isnt a idea of donkeys anyway LOL

    Lets face it- he dont think much and as for original ideas????

    just repeats whats whispered into his ears by advisers and such

    and if noone gets to him in time,,he jus smiles and waves

    So whose sock puppet is he?????

    • just saying 13.1
      24 May 2010 at 9:10 pm

      No, I don’t agree. He’s way more dangerous than that.
      We’ve got to stop underestimating Key. This man is just playing at being affably bumbling. Think “smiling assassin” – and that was the name his admiring peers called him!

      This guy is the Ted Bundy of NZ politics. And he’s smart, savvy, and he has no conscience.

      • just saying 13.1.1
        24 May 2010 at 9:12 pm

        Still grappling with these tags, only ‘way’ was meant to be bold.

        • Anita 13.1.1.1
          24 May 2010 at 9:26 pm

          Can I respectfully suggest you use italics not bold for emphasis:
          a) It’s less glaringly obvious when it goes wrong
          b) It won’t get you accused of shouting 🙂

          The trick when it all goes horribly wrong like that sometimes is to edit the comment, remove everything and then put it back in carefully. The blog will try to helpfully fix any srcewed up tags, and its idea of helpful is not always your idea of helpful 🙂

          • just saying 13.1.1.1.1
            24 May 2010 at 9:36 pm

            Thanks again Anita.
            I didn’t realise bold was considered shouting too.
            I have reread the FAQ and discovered how to end the tag ‘:smile:’

            [lprent: It is less of an issue because it isn’t as noisy. Just avoid going to excess. We also clean up peoples tagging – often with ‘helpful’ remarks. ]

  14. collette 14
    25 May 2010 at 8:42 am

    the only problem with the cycle way is most private landowners dont want strangers in their backyards
    local reps are pushing the cycleway ahead in our area despite 170 signatures against the project from immediate neighbours and have spent tens of thousands of dollars on reports that are incorrect
    . .for many the cycleway just means more private property rights being eroded in nz for a few fitness freaks and business people

    • Bored 14.1
      25 May 2010 at 9:04 am

      You make a fair point Collette about property rights. I too have an issue here, I think our “property” rights actually need revision with regard to public access. The access to the patchy Queens Chain is a case in point, or to the foreshore. I see too many cases of access denial which is in effect privatisation by stealth of the public domain. I also have experience of denial of access to “paper roads”. Conversely I have seen far too many examples of abuse to the property owners land such as damage to fences, dumping of rubbish etc.

      There is room for compromise here, for example on a favourite stream I fish the local farmers and Fish and Game have co-operated to provide access ways to the water along marked fence ways, put in styles to prevent fence damage and fenced off the riparian area from stock. Everybody happy. It requires debate and willingness to make both parties happy, a blank refusal from either will always cause the wrong reaction.

  15. Stanko 15
    25 May 2010 at 9:04 am

    I’m with VTO. $50 million dollars is being spent in the regions on these cycleways. The communities have the money. It is happening. It isn’t a silver bullet, but it appears to have been quite a good idea, despite early scepticism. It isn’t happening overnight and nor could it. The local communities are happy to have it. It is likely to create a lot of jobs. It is good for tourism. It is good for the economy.

    And Jim Nald, with your “less deceptive ways to lift communities” or whatever you are on about…What are you on about? Obviously this project appears to have been politically motivated so Key could be seen to be doing something when the recession hit, but it has turned out rather well.

  16. NZblob 16
    31 May 2010 at 10:48 pm

    The cycleway is the classic sample we are in NZ and a joke to the rest of the world. “NZ seeks to improve its economy by building a cycleway” – come on….either common sense has gone out the window, or whoever advises Key is a highly paid fool. The fact the PM supports the idea is a measure of the man’s common sense itself. Not commercial and definitely deficient in wisdom both economic and political. In the meantime China moves to take a backdoor position with Fiji.

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