Travelling to Porirua on Monday (taking my car in for repair), I was listening to Newstalk ZB (the Wellington morning section) where they were talking about local councils. In fact, the presenter, Nick Mills, was positively incensed; the local council simply ignores submissions from the public, just doing exactly what they like.
Mills quoted the proposed changes on Cobham Drive (the main route to the airport) as a case of the council going ahead with a project in spite of a lack of public support.
People can look forward to safer and more connected communities with lower speed limits to be introduced between Mt Victoria and Wellington Airport, and a safe crossing on State Highway 1 along Cobham Drive.
“Right now, people are making unsafe crossings because there is no convenient alternative for almost two kilometres along Cobham Drive. Our priority is creating a safer environment as soon as possible, while also planning for the future,” says Waka Kotahi Director Regional Relationships and Let’s Get Wellington Moving representative Emma Speight.“These changes will make it safer and easier for people to move around the area, including the increasing number of people walking, running, riding bikes and using wheelchairs on the new shared pathway along Evans Bay”.
LGWM
Public consultations revealed that 94% of residents were against this crossing, mainly because it will slow up traffic and cause backlogs in an area that already suffers from long queues at peak times, but work has already begun on the crossing.
And now the council is being taken to court, with local businesses unhappy about a lack of consultation on proposed cycleways being put in all over Newtown.
Another Wellington transport project is going to court, with unhappy businesses wanting to halt the construction of the Newtown cycleway. The new case was filed against the Wellington Ville Council less than a week after the airport dropped its judicial review of the Cobham Dr pedestrian crossing – another legal challenge to a council transport plan. The changes on the Newtown to city route include 24/7 priority bus lanes and separated cycleways, but controversially require the removal of many car parks. Work has already started, with parts of the cycleway up and running.
Six businesses – N Bhana Limited (which trades as General Grocer), Gazley Motors Ltd, Resene Paints, Wellington AutoGlass, D&T Motors, and John Dudley Motors – filed proceedings in the High Court on Wednesday. They claimed the council did not adequately consult them on the cycleway, which is already being constructed.
Stuff
This will kill Newtown. It is a busy, thriving Wellington suburb, but the loss of 140 car parks in an area where parking is already at a premium, will be the death knell for the area. It is completely unnecessary.
Wellington Council has a habit of pretending to consult the public but just going ahead with projects anyway. Nick Mills bemoans the fact that there doesn’t seem to be anything that ratepayers can do to stop the council from doing what it likes. They will fight all court cases, costing ratepayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process. It just doesn’t seem right.
And yet he completely ignored the obvious solution.
Six years ago, in the run up to the local elections, there were signs all over Wellington from council hopefuls advertising their plans for the future of the city. “4 Lanes to the Planes” was one billboard that I remember, outlining plans for reducing the time it takes to get to the airport, whether driving or catching public transport.
But the city voted in new mayor and Labour shill Justin Lester, who led a council dominated by Greens, and now we have Andy Foster, a bicycle-clipped closet Greenie as mayor.
To me, there are a couple of obvious things that could fix this problem and the people of Wellington could actually get what they want.
First, local councils have become too politicised. Celia Wade-Brown was a member of the Green party, Justin Lester was her deputy and stood as a Labour candidate and Andy Foster, a former National Party member, describes himself as a ‘conservative environmentalist’. For the last 12 years, Wellington has been run by pseudo politicians with a green agenda, who have made the city a harder and harder place to live. Now Wellington has the prospect of Paul Eagle, current Labour member for Rongotai, being the next mayor. It is time that local government ceased to be a training ground or a retirement home for politicians, so that ratepayers can elect councillors who have the interests of the city at heart, rather than those that are just furthering their own political careers.
Speaking of voting: voter turnout in local elections is usually pathetically low. All the Labour and Green party shills get out and vote in their candidates, but few other citizens bother to vote. If you want a council that is actually prepared to listen to ratepayers, then go and vote for those who you think will do that. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking it won’t make any difference. Maybe it won’t, but it definitely won’t if you don’t vote.
I have a friend who is a local Labour party member, and at every local election, she simply votes in those people aligned with the Labour party. She never considers the benefit to the city at all. It is all about politics. This type of thinking is damaging our cities, and something needs to be done about it.
Come October, it is important that you get out and vote. If more Wellington ratepayers had done this in 2016, we might have 4 lanes to the planes by now. Instead, we will soon have a pedestrian crossing causing more congestion on Cobham Drive. It’s time we held councils to account. They need to know who really calls the shots around here.