Ashburton’s second bridge funding may have come at the expense of public transport in Christchurch.

The previous Labour government allocated $78 for new bus infrastructure in 2023 to increase the frequency of services on key routes, deliver hundreds more buses and shelters and 22km of bus lanes in Christchurch.

NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Transport Minister have said they were waiting for a business case from the Christchurch City Council, while the council claim it could not access the funds.

Minister Chris Bishop told RNZ that the money had now been reallocated to an upgrade of Brougham Street and a second bridge for Ashburton.

"In December 2024, government agreed to reallocate the $78 million from [an infrastructure programme] tagged contingency previously identified for the greater Christchurch public transport futures bus improvement project for two key transport projects in the Canterbury region - the upgrading of Brougham Street (SH76) and the second Ashburton Bridge," he said in the statement.

Bishop said there was "nothing to see here" with unused money reprioritised to where it was needed.

"The Christchurch City Council is still progressing the public transport futures programme in line with its available funding," he said.

"The $78 million that was agreed to in 2022 was reprioritised - the council advised it had stopped work on the business case and would instead pursue a low-cost bid for a public transport infrastructure programme.

“Unspent funds for the business case were then returned.

"The reallocated funding is being used on various priority projects, including ones in Canterbury. “

However, Christchurch city councillor Sara Templeton said Bishop's characterisation of events was disingenuous.

"While the government have blamed council for stopping work, it's clear from very early on after the government was elected that we were told that there was no money available anymore. And yet it wasn't reallocated until December," Templeton said.

"So, it seems like there's been some really unhelpful commentary from ministers or officials early on in the piece, which has led to us stopping work, which has then given the government the excuse to say 'oh we can take the money away because they don't need it'."

• RNZ