This meeting was at 7.30pm on Monday April 14 at the Community Lounge, St Thomas’s Church, 200 Riddiford St Newtown. Our local City Councillors, DM Laurie Foon and Cr Nureddin Abdurahman, were at the meeting to discuss the WCC consultations on the Long Term Plan Amendment, Annual Plan and Wellington Water Done Well. The deadline for submissions to Wellington City Council is Monday 21st April.

The Newtown Parking Plan

Paul Barker Wellington City Council Street Transformation Manager, attended the meeting to talk about this. He outlined the parking plan, which is already operating in Berhampore and Newtown West  and is due to begin in Newtown East on June 24th. For more details go to https://www.transportprojects.org.nz/current/berhampore-and-newtown-parking-scheme – the interactive map comparing the current parking regulations with the new ones is very helpful.
 
The first phase of the Parking Plan has been reviewed, and the WCC Koata Hātepe | Regulatory Processes Committee meeting on Wednesday 9th April agreed to investigating the need for more restricted spaces in Berhampore, and extending the zones for residents’ permits to include residents in the local commercial centre. Permits are allocated in priority order – currently there are nine priorities. Local Centre could be a tenth priority.

Residents in Newtown east will receive a letter and a leaflet in early May – this will have information on the parking changes and how to apply for a resident parking permit and visitor permits. Applications for residents’ permits will be open from mid-May. The application is done online or by phone. 

The discussion covered a number of issues, including how to help people from refugee and migrant communities where there is a language barrier to find out about and understand the new rules, the site specific parking issues around the Zoo and Newtown Park, and assurance that Constable St residents living inside the Local Centre Zone who are currently eligible for a parking permit will still be eligible in future.  See the the full minutes for these and other topics.

A discussion of the WCC open consultations followed – Long Term Plan amendment, Annual Plan and Local Water Done Well. Submissions close on Monday April 21st.

DM Laurie Foon clarified that anything that is not listed in the consultation document is remaining in the LTP and is not being consulted on. This includes the Arts Funding, which was agreed in the previous round of consultation.  

LTP amendment consultation

Cr Nureddin outlined the process leading to the amendment about not selling the airport shares, and listed some of the proposals for funding changes resulting from this.

As usual the Consultation Submission Form focusses on these projects and asks submitters whether they approve or disapprove of various options. It is important to realise that submissions don’t have to be limited to these projects, anything can be mentioned in a submission, and feedback can be about projects from any area of the city.

For instance there is local concern about when the Carrara Park toilets will be installed. This was approved by Council in August 2023 but when Cr Nureddin enquired about progress  the answer was that nothing has happened yet because it is scheduled for year four of the LTP (the next Council). We thought it had higher priority, and we will request that this be brought forward and included in the current Annual Plan.

There was also discussion about the new 177 Owen St Park, now under construction and making good progress. The request for a toilet in those plans was defeated – there is a Council policy of no toilet if there is another public one within 5 mins walk. We could reopen this request.

Another local issue is that there is money in the proposed LTM for Suburban Centre Upgrades, Newtown and Johnsonville are likely candidates.

Annual Plan – Deputy Mayor Laurie Foon spoke about this

There is a proposal that the Council provide $700,000 each year to Taranaki Tenths Trust to maintain Mātai Moana Reserve on Miramar Peninsula. This is something we could consider supporting. https://wellington.govt.nz/your-council/projects/matai-moana-reserve

Commercial rates for Air B & B providers are suggested in the Annual Plan. Any submissions on this topic will be of interest. Cr Nureddin noted that this is a very tricky issue.

The projected rates rise is 12.2%. This includes 1.4% for the waste minimisation fund.

Local Water Done Well

This is a very big decision. The options are

A multi-council water services organisation with all the Greater Wellington Councils. The water related assets, debt, revenue and liabilities would be transferred to the new entity. The costs would no longer be included in Council rates, households would be charged directly for their consumption.

A Wellington-only water services organisation – similar to the above but solely owned by WCC and only applying to Wellington water services.

Continuing with existing arrangements, WCC owns the assets and services are contracted out to Wellington Water.  

Water meters are probable whichever option is decided.

Cr Nureddin noted that with existing arrangements it would take 660 years to fix the pipes.

We can feed back into this process if we have concerns about: The potential for privatisation, Lack of Council control over the new entity, Potential of the new entity to avoid any targeting of charges.

Transferring 3 waters to a regional entity would mean that  City Council would have reduced assets to secure borrowing.