A public meeting on Tauranga's lacking infrastructure, traffic congestion and the Takitimu Northern Link progress will be taking place this Friday, May 26.

The event is set to be attended by Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell, National spokesperson for transport Simeon Brown and National Bay of Plenty candidate Tom Rutherford.

Uffindell says the event is part of a commitment to getting Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty the infrastructure 'it so desperately needs”.

'We will be discussing Tauranga's infrastructure shortages, the congestion issues around town and the significant issues on SH2 at the moment.

'The SH2 issue is caused by the Takitimu Northern Link only being committed to stage one and having only just got under construction (National has committed to do stages one and two and would have almost completed them by now if we'd stayed in power – Labour killed the projects after 2017).

'SH2 issues at the moment are also caused by the cycle way being built right now around the Wairoa Bridge, which is causing the trip from Omokoroa to Tauranga to take 90 minutes – simply unacceptable and a huge local issue.”

On Tuesday, May 23, an event was held by Western Bay of Plenty councillor Margaret Murray-Benge, which Uffindell, Rutherford and Brown also attended.

Uffindell says Brown listened attentively and reflected the concerns of the locals. He also fielded a number of questions.

'He advised the National will ensure that all funds collected from road user charges will be invested back into updating and maintaining our roads. He sees the three major focus areas in the Bay of Plenty as efficiency, safety and resilience.”

Brown says this was a constructive meeting of locals living along State Highway 29 who are facing 'very serious safety concerns” and who need to be listened to by NZTA and have a plan created by NZTA to have these issues addressed.

A number of Western Bay of Plenty councillors were also in attendance, and listened to issues raised by local residents.

Uffindell says resident's stories included the following:

• Considerably dangerous roads, often requiring them to stop in a single lane in the middle of a 100km/h state highway and then turn right across two lanes flying down the hill.
• Huge number of near misses and several terrible accidents.
• Significant fear every day when driving and considerable stress for their teenage children trying to navigate the entry/exit on/off SH29.
• Sometimes they sit in the middle of the road trying to turn right and have logging trucks having to take the shoulder to avoid them as they can't brake and then having logging trucks flying down the hill – they can feel their car shaking and they're stuck there fearing they're going to get rear ended and sandwiched between trucks

'Importantly, from a risk mitigation perspective, in 2017 NZTA committed to safety improvements. NZTA has told them there is no money for safety improvements. However, the Labour government pulled the funding. What they are asking for won't cost much and is just basic safety improvements, such as turning lanes, shoulders to increase turning safety, increased signage to warn of potential turning vehicles.

'This government continues to use money from the road user tax and use them on non-road projects, such as a $30b light rail project and cycle bridge plans in Auckland.”

The next public meeting on Bay of Plenty transport will be held at Bethlehem Hall at 12pm, Friday, May 26.

SunLive has apporached Minister of Transport Michael Wood for comment.