An Auckland local board chairman has lashed out at one of his fellow members, calling him a "selfish and immature young person" in a sudden verbal attack over the blocking of an expensive pedestrian crossing.

Rodney Local Board chairman, Brent Bailey told Newstalk ZB Plus that board member Geoff Upson has "a desire to prioritise road user travel times over the preferences of the communities that these roads pass through". 

Upson, meanwhile, told ZB Plus a "great deal of money" had been wasted on speed bumps that most of the community members don't want and that he'd be sticking to his principles.

The in-house scuffle has been sparked following the local board's approval of two raised pedestrian crossings - one on the Coatesville Riverhead Highway costing $200,000 and the other on Rautawhiri Road, Helensville which will cost $400,000. 

Auckland Transport confirmed to ZB Plus the design work has already been completed for the highway crossing, it's "well-progressed" and considered a live project while the Helensville crossing is yet to reach the design phase. 

ZB Plus approached board chairman Bailey regarding updates on the two pedestrian crossings, as well as a third crossing - costing $600,000 which had been approved for Kaukapakapa in July.

Bailey said the money for the Kaukapakapa crossing had been allocated to the Local Board Transport Capital Fund, he said the board's protocol for choosing the fund's projects was that "the subdivision members would make the calls and the rest of the board would support these decisions". 

However, the chairman said this protocol was abandoned when board members voted in unison with Upson - who is a member of the Kumeu subdivision - to exclude the Kaukapakapa crossing from the funded projects. 

He said this was due to Upson having "a publicly acknowledged predetermined position on raised pedestrian crossings". 

Bailey then lamented "a great deal of money" having been wasted to allow Upson to "continue his war on speed bumps", as well as the community missing out on the opportunity to provide a safer township feel. 

ZB Plus asked Bailey to clarify his comments about Upson, to which he said the most significant issue he had with the board member was "the staff time he wastes" with queries outside local board decision-making.

"He consumed a great deal of [Auckland Transport] staff time on queries about road maintenance, design, accident statistics...he doesn’t accept much of the professional advice provided by staff," said Bailey.

"[He] insists on characterising advice on traffic calming, speed reductions and community requests for safety projects as flawed and recently called the National Speed Management Program propaganda."

Bailey then said Upson appeared, to him, as "an entitled, selfish and immature young person with a desire to prioritise road user travel times over the preferences of the communities that these roads pass through."

"These are the people we are elected to represent not a national fan base of predominantly non-residents on social media."

To conclude his comments, Bailey told ZB Plus that, "perhaps I am just a grumpy old man". 

Upson was approached by ZB Plus on the comments made by his chairman, he said he appreciated his honesty but was surprised he used the words given "it will go national [in] national news headlines". 

"Because I am only one vote of nine, I have been forced to adjust my stance on many occasions to make a reasonable compromise in order to upset the least amount of constituents I represent."

Upson said he has a strong majority in the polls as "the highest polling member of [the board]" and one of his core campaign issues was speed bumps. 

He said only a small percentage of feedback from the community supported reducing the speed limits in Rodney and building speed bumps on main roads. 

"A great deal of money has been wasted supporting this obsession of building so many speed bumps the majority of community members don't support," said Upson. 

"Community members who live on roads with speed bumps regularly complain about the noise and vibration caused by vehicles travelling over the new speed bumps."

Upson also said two ex-Rodney local board members, who are part of a Rodney First political party have slandered him on social media.

"Brent [Bailey] is a member of the 'Rodney First' group," said Upson.

Bailey mentioned the community had expressed concerns about raised table crossings during the consultation process, but said it was not clear at the time that alternative crossing options were not an option.

He said the community would likely have accepted them if they understood it was "an all-or-nothing meeting."

"Clearly there will be a deputation from the local community about this at a future business meeting," said Bailey. 

"But the opportunity to have all the work done at once and save money has now been lost. The additional traffic management and reconsideration of contractor work programs ensure this."