"WE are going to end up with a bit of a white elephant," says Southern ward councillor Celia Wade-Brown in response to the Wellington City Council’s turnabout decision to support the Transmission Gully Motorway plan over the Coastal Highway upgrade option this week.

Wade-Brown is one of the city councillors who believes Transmission Gully should not go ahead. She is concerned about the local issue of parking in the city and the global issue of climate change.

She suggests more money be spent on upgrading the rail system rather than roading.

"Transport is the fastest increasing factor for greenhouse gas emission. Putting in either Transmission Gully or four-laning the Coastal Highway will undermine existing rail commuting. I fear it will put more pressure on extending the inner city bypass and no city has ever built its way out of congestion."

Meanwhile Mayor and council transport spokesperson Kerry Prendergast is "absolutely" in favour of building a motorway through Transmission Gully, subject to funding becoming available from either Land Transport New Zealand and Transit New Zealand.

"There is overwhelming support from Wellington city and the region for Transmission Gully. I’m talking about the (Hearing Sub-Committees) robust survey that shows that 65 percent of Wellingtonians want Transmission Gully, we have agreed to accept the finding of the report, but we still have concerns around some of the technical aspects of the report."

Prendergast says there is still a funding gap of $430 million for Transmission Gully to to go ahead, with $500 million in Crown money available.

"It’s not going to happen tomorrow, we’re some years away."

Prendergast says it is also important that the transport needs of other communities are not compromised by the Hearing Sub-Committees conclusion.

"This includes completion of projects from Ngauranga to Wellington Airport and Grenada to the Hutt."

She says the people who come into the city from Miramar, Karori and other Wellington suburbs also deserve a roading system as good as the people who come into the city via the Western Corridor.

Another area of concern is urban sprawl.

Prendergast says she wants assurances from Porirua and Kapiti that they will implement land use controls to minimise urban sprawl along the Gully route.

The Western Corridor Hearing Sub-Committee report will be discussed by councillors at the Strategy and Policy Committee meeting on April 6.