About 150 people attended a public meeting at the Kaimai Community school hall on May 23 because of their concern for safety on State Highway 29. The women and men spoke of the horrifyingly scary manoeuvres they have to undertake to get on and off the highway with trucks and vehicles bearing down on them.

National's Spokesperson for Transport Simeon Brown, and Road Transport Forum CEO Ken Shirley were guest speakers. Both men heard the harrowing accounts and agreed SH29 should be a road of national significance.

Everyone appreciated that Simeon was there to hear first-hand the problems residents face on a daily basis, and not all intersections would be costly to fix. Debbie Marshall said give her a pot of paint and she could fix it at Old Kaimai Rd.

As co-chairman of the regional council transport and former chief exececutive of the heavy transport industry, Ken highlighted how the funding of roads was paid for by the trucks and cars on the roads and the fuel they consume, but under this present government it is not going into roading and roading maintenance as it should be. Now years of underinvestment and congestion in this growing area is destroying this sub-region.

One Friday afternoon a local turning into Poripori Rd had three cars behind waiting to make the turn too. She had moved way past the broken entry line to avoid the trucks hurtling from hitting any of them. She truly hoped that anyone with some power for change gets on to this very soon. She is a mum of seven and feeling very stressed.

We need answers fast.

Margaret Murray-Benge, Bethlehem.