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The Wellington Civic Trust has told the Wellington Regional Council to think again. It has asked the council to withdraw its support for the flyover alongside the Basin Reserve, and the other roading plans being pushed on to Wellington by the NZ Transport Agency.
The Trust says the roading issue is of great significance to the city and the region. It challenges the council’s belief that the subject lacks sufficient “significance.”
To the Wellington City Council Strategy & Policy Committee
- The draft before you is about the July 2011 NZTA “Public engagement” scheme. They’ve made available the public feedback about it to inform Council’s submission. We’re heartened by that, it’s what your press statement of July 4th committed to; it’s worth noting in the submission itself.
- One of those 2000+ giving feedback was us, the Civic Trust. We said then that NZTA billed its scheme as “an improvement for a successful capital city” and our stance then and now is made in this light. Read more »
To the Wellington City Council Strategy and Policy Committee
The Trust agrees with the main finding of the report — that the framework is fit for purpose. The Trust has never understood why the Council would wish to disturb a set of objectives and principles which were the product of a consultative and collaborative process and which had successfully established benchmarks for evaluating specific proposals. Read more »
To the Wellington City Council
This is our submission on the Town Belt Guiding Principles (public consultation closing 9 September 2011). It is of enduring interest to us, and we wish to be heard in any oral submissions process on this consultation.
Overriding paramount principles
- Firstly, the Wellington Civic Trust (the Trust) recommends to Council that there be overriding paramount principles. The foremost of these would be that the Town Belt is to be accorded a mana and a sanctity that place it supremely above all other public reserve and recreation areas. The other overriding principle would be that each generation of Wellington Councillors and citizens honour the responsibility of protecting and enhancing the Town Belt as open recreational space for future generations in perpetuity. This is not just another park. Read more »
To the NZ Transport Agency
Why the Wellington Civic Trust is making a submission
- The Wellington Civic Trust has as its first object “to promote a civic environment whereby the City of Wellington, its surroundings, and its adjacent countryside and coastline become a resource for the use, benefit and enjoyment of all Wellington citizens.” (Constitution and rules, Objects, Clause 4 (a)) The NZTA proposals are billed as “improvements for a successful capital city.” We have therefore approached this project in that light. Would it promote that object set out in our constitution and in so doing would it make this capital city more successful?
WCT Awards – The winners
The Wellington Civic Trust Awards were held in the Council Chambers on 28 April 2011. These were the lustrous winners:
Category winner — ‘Enhancement or Protection of the City’s Built Environment’
Te Wharewaka, by Architecture+
The runner-up was the Chews Lane Project byAthfield Architects.
Category winner — ‘The City’s Public Spaces’
Te Ahumairangi Hill Lookout, Tinakori Hill
The runner-up was Taranaki Wharf West.
Category winner — ‘Art in the City ~ People’s Choice’
Colin Webster-Watson’s Frenzy, Taputeranga Reserve, Owhiro Bay
Submission on Report 2 to the WCC Strategy and Policy Committee Review of Implementation Agency for the waterfront
The Wellington Civic Trust agrees with the recommendation of officers that the reduced status quo option is the best immediate choice for the continued operation of the Council’s waterfront implementation agency. We believe, however, that this should be an interim decision and that the governance structure of the project should be included in the proposed review of the Framework.
While the Trust agrees with the broad conclusion reached in the review, it is disappointed with its tone. We can well understand why the company was prompted to write so fulsomely in praise of Karen Wallace’s work. The report exaggerates the risks of the in-house option and is too enthusiastic in its support of the CCO model. We believe each model has its strengths and its weaknesses. We heard this morning a lot about the great merits of a focused, arms-length implementation agency. We should remember it was a focused, arms- length agency which gave us the Events Centre.
The Civic Trust has no climate scientists on its Board. We have not therefore attempted to evaluate the science, we are persuaded, however, that if the great majority of climate scientists say that global warming is a life-threatening problem, we have not only to listen, but to act.
If 255 members of the US National Academy of Sciences say that “there is compelling comprehensive and consistent objective evidence that humans are changing the climate in ways that threaten our societies and the ecosystems on which we depend” we have to do something about it.
REGIONAL LAND TRANSPORT PLAN (RLTP)
The Wellington Civic Trust has made a submission to the draft RLTP issued by Greater Wellington Regional Council in March 2009. This document will be posted on this site shortly.
All members and intending members welcome. the Annual Report for 2008/09 will be available at the meeting. For further information, contact secretary@wellingtoncivictrust.org