Tasman’s sprawling housing developments of the last 15 years alone have resulted in the range of $380 million of unnecessary infrastructure costs (compared to the same number of dwellings in a more compact urban environment) – that’s $25 million per annum or more than $400 for every Tasman resident!
How does that compare to TDC’s proposed operational savings of $1.4 million or the debated $130,000 savings from reducing library opening hours? We cannot penny-pinch our way to a healthy budget if the fundamental business model is broken!
(My estimate is based on figures from StatsNZ and research performed by Infrastructure Victoria)