Southland District Council Mayor Frana Cardno is not against the Haast-Hollyford Road proposal, but is also far more aware of the difficulties that surround it.

Council received 37 submissions to its draft long term plan supporting the road proposal, which has been a controversial subject since the early 1990s.

"I have never said I am against the Haast-Hollyford Road, but I am aware that there are 11 different proposals for accessing Milford Sound and some of them, including this one, have merit.

"But all of them do have issues, not least financially and environmentally," Mrs Cardno said.

"We have to be aware that if we allow and support one, then are we not setting a precedent for the others?"

The Haast-Hollyford Road is a hugely complicated project and one that has not been discussed in any detail by the Southland District Council since the 1990s, she said.

However, because of the submissions to the draft long term plan, Council will be discussing it at next week's hearings.

Many hours were put into an in-depth report in the early 1990s and Council and the Westland District Council met with the then Ministers of Tourism and Conservation to discuss it in 1994.

The project got to the point of trying to fund a feasibility study and so Mrs Cardno strongly recommended that those people who wanted to see the road become reality form a group and work on that study.

"Council is not receiving any more funding from the Government for the roads we have now and we are working hard to manage and fund maintenance for these roads at a considerable cost to our ratepayers."

The best option for such a road as the Haast-Hollyford is for it to be funded by either Central Government or private enterprise, she said.