Some February-March happenings
It’s always busy at this time of year but there’s an extra lot happening right now! Talk Wellington tries to keep up with this roundup, and please add things we’ve missed…
By the way, we highly recommend Greater Auckland’s weekly roundup, always featuring lots of nationally-relevant stuff as well as Tāmaki-Makaurau things.
- Māori customary title is confirmed for stretches of the Wairarapa coast
- A sewer pipe rupture in Porirua sends raw poo into the Porirua Stream, Kenepuru Stream and Onepoto Harbour (with sources telling TW that a precursor leak to this one was flagged years ago)
- Shelly Play sees a long stretch of spectacular coastal road thronged with people on foot, bikes, scooters, wheelchairs, mobility scooters, pushchairs and more
- Bus boardings across the Wellington region reach an all-time high, then promptly break that record
- Hutt Valley folks haven’t been getting proper fluoridation of their water for months
- The costs double for upgrading the water-treatment plant at Te Marua, while the infrequent downpours of El Niño don’t fill things up
- Flash new playspaces at Frank Kitts/Te Aro Mahana and Botanic gardens/ki Paekākā are open for play again!
- GW drops prosecution of Transmission Gully contractors for sediment spills into the already vulnerable and precious Te Awarua o Porirua harbour, in favour of a “more effective” option
- The Minister for Infrastructure will be final arbiter of district plan changes where Independent Hearing Panels and councils disagree, setting a strongly pro-housing tone in a Cabinet paper and speech (a helpful breakdown here)
- Te Awakairangi locals welcome anyone getting despondent about Wellington having more homes anytime soon
- The saga of the Reading Cinema (now with additional players) keeps illustrating the complexities, big sums, information asymmetries, diverging incentives and “rock and a hard place“ scenarios typical to inner city revitalisation. Councillors’ blogs (Why I didn’t vote against, and Why I voted against) and a facts roundup
- New Transport Minister releases for consultation the draft Government Policy Statement on Transport (which sets out the major spending and policy direction that Waka Kotahi must execute). It’s a big shift, including bad news for sustainable and active travel (and micro-manages local government “partners”), promises lots of new highways and a special pothole fund, will make the driving experience worse in cities, and is significantly unfunded
- PSA: You can show up to the Transport For Life rally if you want to take a stand and demand better.
- Talk Wellington will have submission guidance before the consultation window closes (2 April) – get in touch if you’d like to help! (For extra power points, write pronto to your councillors about your concerns: councils will all be writing their submissions now and central government will listen most to them.)
- The Transport Minister tries to renege on National’s campaign-promise that a second Mt Victoria tunnel would include access for people
- Wellington City hums with the Arts Festival, Fringe, and suburb festivals highlighting all sorts of goodness that we must nourish
- Amalgamation is also back on the table, though a quick search for [amalgamation Wellington] shows how long it’s been talked of
- Riverlink’s stopbank works proceed despite question marks hanging over the larger project
- Movin’ March is going off across the region – check out amazing photos and videos
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