Kia Ora John, 

In this email:

• An update on the Horowhenua Expressway petition,
• A quick look at what I've been busy doing,
• How you can help this year.

It's been a busy summer so far, and I've loved getting out and meeting so many people across our region, from the Levin Christmas Parade and Carnival to the Kāpiti Food Fair, and everything in between. I really enjoyed my time at the Foxton and Te Horo Christmas markets, the Kāpiti Food Drive and visiting other local markets like the Saturday morning one in Paraparaumu, and I'll be at the Waikanae Beach market this coming weekend. If you haven't visited any of the local markets, check them out!

A big focus has been the petition to get Labour to change their mind and build the Horowhenua Expressway. It has huge support across the whole region, and over 2500 of you have signed it already. National committed to this road before the 2017 election, and Labour and the Greens cancelled it as soon as they could once they were in Government. We all know how important this road is to our community; it's not the "Ghost road" that Labour call it. We need to build a four lane expressway from Ōtaki to the north of Levin for:

• Safety - Expressways save lives. It's actually that simple. No one has died on the Kāpiti Expressway, but people are still dying on the two lane SH1 all too often: 26 people over that 20km stretch - one person every 770m. That has to change.
• Businesses - We need to increase productivity by getting transport moving on purpose-built roads to help re-vitalise the centre of Levin.
• All of us - we deserve world class infrastructure in NZ. We are all sick of being stuck in traffic jams, or worse still when the whole road is blocked for hours.

This is the final stage of National's plan to get four lanes from Wellington to north of Levin - let's finish it! Sign the petition here. 

And finally, the local team here have been busy getting ready for the upcoming campaign, including a day with Simon Bridges and the National team in Palmerston North. Our big challenge at the moment is to build a team of 200 people who are willing to give us just two hours this year to help out with the campaign. There is a huge range of ways to help, from delivering flyers on your morning walk to helping behind the scenes with admin. If you have a couple of hours to spare, please email me.

Enjoy the rest of your summer, and if you're on the roads over Wellington Anniversary Weekend, then please take it easy; we'll fix the roads once we get back in to Government.

I'll be at the Horowhenua AP&I show this weekend  collecting signatures for the petition and meeting as many people as I can. Hope to see you there.

Ngā mihi,

Tim Costley
https://timcostley.national.org.nz/