{"id":520254,"date":"2026-07-11T02:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T02:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/520254\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T02:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T02:49:14","slug":"papamoa-residents-rally-against-second-tauranga-toll-on-new-interchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/520254\/","title":{"rendered":"P\u0101p\u0101moa residents rally against second Tauranga toll on new interchange"},"content":{"rendered":"

But motorists who stop off at P\u0101p\u0101moa East, then later rejoin the TEL will pay both tolls \u2013 $3.40 \u2013 rather than the full-length toll of $2.30. <\/p>\n

This was a key criticism of the new tolling structure by locals at a public meeting at Golden Sands Baptist Church on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

P\u0101p\u0101moa ward councillor Steve Morris, Bay of Plenty MP Tom Rutherford, Labour list MP Jan Tinetti and Labour electorate candidate Rhieve Grey all attended the meeting.<\/p>\n

Santa Cruz Drive resident Norma Howieson said the toll would hinder people from visiting the new Golden Sands shopping centre. <\/p>\n

\" Santa Cruz Drive resident Norma Howieson speaks about the P\u0101p\u0101moa East Interchange toll. Photo \/ Ayla Yeoman<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to help the development here. I\u2019m the kind of person that\u2019ll go out of my way to not use it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beachwater Drive resident Daryl Aim said the toll would solely affect the eastern community. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s simply not good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Domain Rd resident Frith Walker said she was worried about the businesses.<\/p>\n

She said the toll would add up for families going down to support local businesses and visit the supermarket. <\/p>\n

\u201cI love going down the expressway, but I\u2019m trying to train myself not to. I can probably afford the $1.10, but it\u2019s the principle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Union Dr resident Rei Boshoff said he recently moved to the area to start a family. <\/p>\n

\" Union Drive resident Rei Boshoff. Photo \/ Ayla Yeoman<\/p>\n

He said he worried the toll would prevent the area from growing and developing. <\/p>\n

Maket\u016b resident Jane Thomas said she wanted to shop in P\u0101p\u0101moa as \u201cit\u2019s 10 minutes down the road from me\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said people from Maket\u016b, Paengaroa and Pongakawa often went to P\u0101p\u0101moa to shop, but the toll would discourage them, taking away a lot of business. <\/p>\n

P\u0101p\u0101moa resident Caroline McNicol and P\u0101p\u0101moa East Mitre 10 Mega owners<\/a> Loretta and Brian Johnstone each created petitions with a collective 6500 signatures. <\/p>\n

Morris said NZTA consulted about the tolling before the P\u0101p\u0101moa East Interchange was complete. <\/p>\n

\" P\u0101p\u0101moa ward Tauranga city councillor Steve Morris and Labour MP Jan Tinetti. Photo \/ Ayla Yeoman<\/p>\n

\u201cSurprise, surprise, 86% of us opposed that toll.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said residents were already paying for the interchange through a targeted rate.<\/p>\n

Morris criticised the 80-cent administration fee included in each toll charge.<\/p>\n

He said it was unfair that Tauranga would have two toll gantries on the Tauranga Eastern Link, soon to be another on the Tauranga Northern Link and one on Takitimu Drive. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are being treated unfairly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\" Mount Maunganui Labour electorate candidate Rhieve Grey. Photo \/ Ayla Yeoman<\/p>\n

Grey said the decision to create the second toll was made at Cabinet level and those with the power to do something about it were those in the current government. <\/p>\n

Rutherford said he supported tolls but believed the double charge for those exiting and returning to the toll road was unfair. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were to pop off and shop … or visit family and friends in the area, then rejoin the toll … you get charged nearly double.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rutherford said the system would detect when a driver leaves the road and would treat any return as a new journey.<\/p>\n

\" Bay of Plenty MP Tom Rutherford. Photo \/ Ayla Yeoman<\/p>\n

He said he also felt it was unfair Tauranga had two of the country\u2019s three toll roads, while major expressways in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch remained free. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is inequity at play here. We grew extremely quickly and with that growth, we needed more new roads.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rutherford noted other new roads of national significance would also be tolled.<\/p>\n

Rutherford said the interchange was already reducing congestion and supporting growth in Golden Sands, Te Tumu and Wairakei.<\/p>\n

Meeting attendees unanimously voted for Rutherford and Tinetti to take the two petitions to Parliament to request a select committee review.<\/p>\n

\" The unanimous vote for Tauranga MP Tom Rutherford and Tauranga-based Labour-listed MP Jan Tinetti to take the two petitions to Parliament to request a select committee review. Photo \/ Ayla Yeoman<\/p>\n

Since the $455 million TEL opened in 2015, about $79m in toll revenue has been collected, with $53m going towards the debt and interest, and the rest to operational costs, according to NZTA data to mid-2025.<\/p>\n

\u2013 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n

Ayla Yeoman<\/a> is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based in Tauranga. She holds a Bachelor of Arts majoring in communications, politics and international relations from the University of Auckland, and has been a journalist since 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But motorists who stop off at P\u0101p\u0101moa East, then later rejoin the TEL will pay both tolls \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9092,12635,44295,3806,71,226,305,60020,2374,117,111,43,139,69,90,23282,49160,3109,16237,530,8466,1227,8229,6859,42032,92204,1533,27904],"class_list":["post-520254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-against","tag-area","tag-developing","tag-east","tag-from","tag-growing","tag-have","tag-interchange","tag-meeting","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-ppmoa","tag-prevent","tag-public","tag-rally","tag-residents","tag-second","tag-tauranga","tag-they","tag-told","tag-toll","tag-tolls","tag-will","tag-worry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}