Please note the new venue – we will meet at the
Salvation Army premises, 4 Normanby St

The Agenda will include:

Approval of the May meeting minutes.

The Newtown & Berhampore Parking Scheme and Residents’ Parking Permits – presentation and Q&A with Paul Barker from WCC

Presentation on Climate  and Community Resilience – Graeme Carroll

Wellington Heritage Festival, 24th Oct -15th Nov 2026: proposal for a new edition of the exhibition “Newtown in Photographs and Story”.

An overview of changes to local government: 
Tiaki Wai (the new organisation to deliver water services) starts on 1 July 2026.                          Council Amalgamation – Mayor Andrew Little gave this speech on Wednesday June 3rd outlining the issues; what happens now?

Meet the Candidates Meeting for the General Election – planned for Tuesday 13th October 2026 at the Salvation Army.

All welcome! We hope to see you there.

These notes cover the main points, but see the full minutes at the end of the post for more details.

Following up from the flooding disaster in April

Vania Szymkowiak (WREMO) addressed the meeting. She provided maps for people to record house numbers and impacts to capture callouts. Acknowledged meeting held in Berhampore  the night before – there was a great turn out of flood affected people. 

Jamuna Rotstein (WCC Flood Recovery Team) – reinforced the value of letting Council know if you have had any issues, to get a better understanding of the community needs and to coordinate support.  

A key problem was that the Council was unable to respond to the required volumes of phone calls at the time (circa 3am) when the flooding hit. There was discussion of possible solutions.

Laurie Foon acknowledged the work of the City Safety and Wellbeing Team.

WCC City Safety:

Sehai Orgad (WCC City Safety & Wellbeing Manager) reviewed earlier calls to build on the City Safety Plan, and referred to the City Safety and Wellbeing Briefing Report. This Council has allowed more funding for safety initiatives. 

The Council has about 120 cameras around the city streets, and is working on being proactive rather than reactive. The various support networks, including Māori wardens, Pacifica and Ethnic patrollers and others, work together. An example of output is well-lit and visible support stations, three on trial in the CBD.  They are affected and people are using them, and have been shown to deter offenders as well as support actual and potential victims. 

Specifically to Newtown, Council has written three papers towards a Newtown Safety Team. This work is on-going.  The Newtown Safety project ran from October 2025 and closed in January 2026. The team continue to work with the Police and other agencies.

Joel Berryman (WCC City Safety Adviser). [Joel was one of the team working in Newtown from October till January. Their work was outlined in our November Newsletter.] The ongoing Council role involves co-ordinating between Police, DCM, Wellington City Mission, Salvation Army and other agencies.  Council pays attention to Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design – CPTED – looking at the physical environment is their responsibility.

During the Newtown project many activities were enhanced including upgrading CCTV and street lighting. There is now a dedicated street cleaner in Newtown, Monday to Friday. De-escalation workshops and mental health training were made available. 

HMDT (Homelessness Multi-Disciplinary Team) Hui involve all Pōneke services supporting people who are chronically hanging around on the street. There are often drug and mental health issues to consider.

NZ Police update:

Mel Paddon is currently filling in for Sergeant Mike Bryne for Community Policing, based at Kilbirnie. Des Foo is part of the team, working in Newtown. Their role is about prevention rather than acute responses. Mel is working on a plan including a wider range of agencies.

Duncan McLean (Newtown Heart) noted that the presentations had not mentioned retailers, who were being affected by people disrupting them from the street.

Sehai outlined a key initiative Homelessness Coordination Service target services to create a focus on individual cases, identify systemic gaps from Council briefing back from March.

There was discussion about calling the Police – this is recommended whenever there is concern about what is happening on the streets. Mel advised that 111 is always a reasonable call. Staff will respond if they can, depending on the urgency of other jobs getting attention at the time, eg: if a car is available, they will drive by. 

SMART Newtown:

Jane Patterson (Chair of the Newtown Community Centre Trust) spoke about Smart Newtown – Anna Symons (NCC Kaiwhakahaere) and Jane submitted to the Oral Submissions on the Council District Plan today. It was noted that Smart Newtown is part of our disaster resilience path, and needs to be funded by the Council.

Carrara Park update & mural:

Rhona updated the meeting on progress of the Carrara Park toilets, specifically saying that the Association has been invited to nominate an artist to create a mural for the end wall facing the Park entrance. Paul Forrest has put forward his proposal, which meets the councils brief, talked about options for the artwork – and that it would be good to hear the ideas from other artists. 

Member of Parliament update:

Julie Anne Genter encouraged people to contact her electorate office, with matters like central government, housing, immigration, visa, citizenship needing help, and can go to her electorate office.  Having been assisting post-floods, Student Army from Vic University can help. 

Government budgets due and a lot of stuff happening, could provide updates.

WCC Councillors update:

Laurie Foon addressed the meeting on behalf of herself and Councillor Nureddin Abdurahman. They are very busy regarding flood recovery work – recoveryenquiries@wcc.govt.nz

Other current activities centre around the District Plan deliberations, and the transition to Tiaki Wai.

Noted that Wellington Water is not responding to leaks and advised to email details to Cr Foon. 

Council Amalgamation is another medium term consideration.  Our Mayor supports the concept but there are a lot of things to consider. There seems to be very little evidence of potential cost reduction through this process, but serious concern about lack of democratic representation. Maori wards could be affected, forced to have or not have. 

Duncan shares variable speed regulations on Green Street, a dead end street, it seems senseless and a waste of money and time. It was noted this is a Government requirement.

This meeting was held on Monday March 16^th, at St Thomas’s Church Lounge.

We were pleased that MP Julie Anne Genter, Cr Laurie Foon and GWR Cr Yadana Saw all attended – perhaps the first time that the House of Representaives, Wellington City Council and Greater Wellington Regional Council have all been represented at the same Association meeting.

These were some of the issues discussed –

Emergency Management:

Vania Szymkowiak introduced the evolving role of WREMO in the Newtown area.

This includes consideration of:

• Current resources – both central and held by individuals
• Known hazards 
• What people are concerned about emergency preparedness
• Community-led model, neighbours uptake is progressing

There was to be a WREMO workshop at Te Whare Hapori o Ngā Puna Waiora/Newtown Community Centre on Saturday 21 March, aimed at those who are interested in being part of a collective of others who want to be involved, to promote hub open days, community events/workshops and ongoing conversations/preparedness.

Newtown Festival

Rhona Carson (Festival Administrator as well as Association Secretary) said that organisationally things had gone very smoothly, and asked for feedback from others who were there. Most of the meeting attendees had been at the Festival –either as marshals, stall holders, helpers with the morning tea provided by the Association, or as members of the public. The feedback was very positive!

Rhona thanked those participating and contributing, on behalf of the Festival team. The meeting supported the Festival by acclamation. 

The Protest Exhibition – 1970’s protest photos and art from 6th March to 11th April

Hilary Watson shared that the exhibition at 24.7 Gallery, Riddiford Street was well attended during the Festival with further promotion at Sub-Culture.  The exhibition is extended until 11th April and everyone is welcome.

Marching 4 meals – Shared by the Salvation Army, click this link for more details:  Marching 4 Meals : this event is supporting Major Gavin Baxter who is walking the Te Araroa Trail to raise awareness and funds for The Salvation Army foodbanks across New Zealand.  He started at Bluff on January 1st. People are invited to walk some or all of the Wellington South section of the trail on Sunday 29 March. Walkers are gathering at 1pm, Shorland Park, Island Bay, finishing at Oriental Bay, distance: 10.3km

Laurie Foon – Wellington City Council update

• There will be an update on policy for dangerous and insanitary buildings. This is relevant to Newtown because of ongoing issues with the burnt out house at 185 Mansfield St.
• The name Kahukura Park is now official. The meeting discussed having a party to clebrate. Perhaps a Neighbour’s Day event? 
• More P180 parking spaces are to be permitted as part of the parking plan around Newtown East.
• A mobility park is to be allocated in Regent Street as consulted.
• On 17th March the Council was due to discuss matters including the Mayor’s 64 Triennium Plan and an extension for City Safety work to continue into Newtown.
• Annual plan is to cut funds, but climate action was not part of the funding cuts.
• It was noted that Loafers Lodge has been sold to Prime Property Group 
• There is currently a problem with the FixIt App not sending feedback acknowledgements and time delay to get work done.
  Noted that this appeared to be fixed after this meeting.
• There is not yet a process for continuity with change to Tiaki Wai (the new water management organisation) on the 1st July.

Julie Anne Genter – Parliament update

• Congratulations and thankfulness for an amazing Newtown Festival. 
• Helping council work on Moa Point. Terms of Reference have been released. https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/moa-point-crown-review-team-appointed
• Opposition to the Government’s ‘move-on orders’; action on the 29th March
• New social housing developments are going to be built in Newtown.  Some from Kainga Ora and other community housing providers like Dwell Housing.
• The Environment Select Committee is working through submissions on the RMA replacement bill.
• There are various steps being taken to push the Government to take steps to ease transport costs with the current fuel crisis.
• It was suggested for the community, residents association to gather and think about what we can do, to support our community as hardship and crisis will rise.  Fits in well with emergency planning discussion, with food security and how we can access these and other resources.

Yadana Saw – Greater Wellington Regional Council update

• Yadana Saw, Sarah Free, Simon Woolf and Tom James are our representatives from the Pōneke Constituency
• Public transport fares are increasing by 3.1% on 15 May
• On 12th of April, on the Snapper network, you will be able to use your debit cards, smartphones and watches to pay for a single adult snapper fare. It does not include concessions until the national ticketing system, NZTA projects on the timeline of delivery to roll out throughout the country.
• Annual/Long term plan has trimmed a 13% rate, on average to around 9.7%
• There is also going to be a GW review/investigation of Moa Point, at least 6 months away
  https://www.gw.govt.nz/your-region/news/moa-point-sewage-discharge
• The way we pay for water is going to be changing over to a new entity, Tiaki Wai, as of the 1st July.  There will be more changes to follow and a better understanding of the water charges and payment, separate from district council rates
• The Joint Working Group looking at changing regional council activities is progressing https://www.gw.govt.nz/your-region/news/greater-wellington-joins-other-councils-mana-whenua-to-reform-local-government/

Carrara Park Toilet Update

Council are progressing with an external contractor appointed for construction of toilet block off-site and onsite work is expected to begin in May.

WCC Consultations

There are several consultations currently open for public feedback. Sign up to WCC Let’s Talk to stay updated.  Home | Let’s Talk

• Noise control policy: Review of noise in the District Plan | Let’s Talk closes 10th April
• Community engagement: Participate Pōneke | Let’s Talk closes 12th April

Merio Marsters Association President, welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Sam Somers (Treasurer) summarised the accounts. The Association has applied for an annual Council grant of  $1000, and Stone Soup Community Gardens grant of $300 has been approved for the Carrara Park garden beds..

Projects:

Carrara Park – WCC announcement to have toilets open 26 June 2026. You can follow progress here Carrara Park public toilet – Projects – Wellington City Council

A community event to celebrate Carrara Park is open for suggestions and discussion. 

Merio reported on the recent meeting with WCC Connected & Newtown Safety Plan team: Billy Murray, Joel Berryman and Delly Ranginui – previously reported in the November Newsletter, more details in the full minutes.

• The safety team has been invited to our February meeting to provide us with updates and changes to safety projects/plans in Newtown.

Guest Speaker:  Julie Anne Genter, our MP for Rongotai

• The Electorate office has been assisting people with various functions. Many support services have been made more difficult to engage in.
• Newtown Heart, our association, and Salvation Army have been working with Council to do cleanup operations.
• The latest Mt Victoria tunnel proposal has been expanded today. It was noted that there is no funding for this project yet. It was noted that this project will directly affect neighbouring suburbs, but Newtown will affect indirectly.  This media release from Waka Kotahi lists ‘information’ days: https://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=175749. Note that details are sparse and there are four weeks to make submissions.

Councillor Updates:

Cr Nureddin Abdurahman thanked the Association and Salvation Army for organising candidate meetings and generally helping what was a very positive campaign.

He spoke briefly about Council activities, including listing various Council committees, which are in this article https://wellington.govt.nz/news-and-events/news-and-information/our-wellington/2025/10/deputy-mayor-announced

Other business:

Neighbours of the burned out house at 285 Mansfield Street talked about their concerns.

Ban on Fireworks.  Following from last month’s meeting, we have written to the Council asking that previous discussions be reviewed. There was some discussion around the issue.

Andrew Wison (Salvation Army) updated the meeting on social issues around the City.

An awareness and shared information drawn to new changes for 70+ year olds renewing their driving licences, for example: to be registered and seen by GP, cognitive, eye tests, etc

Merio encouraged attendees to reach out to isolated vulnerable members in our community, so external support can be provided during the holidays period. To everyone in attendance, Safe holidays, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

The formal meeting was followed by supper and an enjoyable social time.

This meeting will be on Monday April 14th, 7.30-9.0pm, at the Community Lounge, St Thomas’s Church, 200 Riddiford St.
(it isn’t the usual 3rd Monday of the month – the 3rd Monday in April- 21/4/25 – is Easter Monday)

The agenda will include:

A discussion of the WCC open consultations – LTP amendment, Annual Plan and Local Water Done Well.

The Newtown Parking Plan – due to commence in Newtown East on June 24th.

Other Newtown News

All welcome! We hope to see you there.                              

This meeting was 7.30 pm 17th March 2025 at the St Thomas’s Community Lounge.

Rhona Carson, Association President, welcomed the guest speaker, Welington City Missioner Murray Edridge, and other attendees.

Rhona passed on thanks from Martin Hanley, Newtown Festival Director, to all who contributed to the Newtown Festival on March 2nd.

Car parking for Association meetings: It was noted that the McDonald’s car park time limit has changed from 90 to 60 minutes and people are being prosecuted for parking there for 90 minutes. The P60 on-street parking restrictions apply between 8am and 6pm, so parking on the street during meetings is recommended. See the official information here.

Guest Speaker

Murray Edridge, Wellington City Missioner, talked about Whakamaru, the new building which opened in November, and the work that WCM does from there and at other WCM facilities.

He noted that the situation for those challenged in the community is as dire as it has ever been. There is an increase in the homeless population, exacerbated by the decreased availability of emergency housing.

Several WCM services are focussed on housing options. In Wellington. These include Te Pā Pori, the Tory Street Supported Transitional Housing Facility; Te Pā Maru, the previous Night Shelter on Taranaki Street which now provides accommodation for substance users; Te Ō – a Kāinga Ora complex in Mt Cook, where WCM provides 24/7 support to the residents; and Whakamaru, the new facility, which has transitional housing as well as a range of other services.

These services include:

• Craig and Gail’s Café – a vibrant community hub open to all where there is no ‘us and them’. Customers pay what they can.
• There are meeting spaces with excellent connectivity and services. These gather people in.
• Social Supermarket
• Laundry and showers
• Medical Centre and other practitioners: social workers, support workers, financial mentors.
• Crisis Recovery Café. People in distress can drop in to the Café at any time 24/7 to seek support from staff who are trained and supported to provide it.

Murray answered questions about the services. He also praised the staff and volunteers who make the services work – including some of our members at the meeting who are part of the WCM team.  He was thanked and warmly applauded for his contribution.

Neighbours’ Gathering at Carrara Park Rhona invited attendees to this event on Saturday March 22nd from 1pm – 4pm We at Newtown Residents’ Association are hosting this event to celebrate Neighbours Aotearoa.

Update on the new Community Park, 177 Owen St – work has started on the Park construction. The WCC officers have been consulting with Manu Whenua, who are going to give a name to the park.

Urban Renewal: Adelaide Road, a case study on Brownfields Redevelopment. A panel discussion was run by the Urban Development Institute (UDINZ) on 6 March at Whakamaru. Hilary Watson, Steve Dunn and Carol Comber attended.
Hilary reported back and referred us to this review of the meeting: https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360605726/ripe-development-failed-plans-adelaide-road

Consultation and development of a plan for Adelaide Road was initiated by WCC in 2008, but little has been completed.

Ian Cassels spoke on the panel about the successful development of the ‘Monark building’ on the corner of King Street.

WCC consultations.  Consultation on the Long Term Plan (LTP) amendment, the Annual Plan, and the Local Water Done Well, will be happening from March 20th to April 21st.

There will be 2 in-person consultations in our ward. The first consultation meeting will be at Newtown Library Saturday 22nd March 10.30am – 12pm, the second at Island Bay Library, Thursday 10 April, 12–1.30pm. 

Date of the next meeting: 14th April. The 3rd Monday in April, 21st April, is Easter Monday. Rhona proposed moving to 14th April – still 4 weeks between meetings, and allows time to discuss the WCC consultations before submissions close.

We met at the St Tom’s Community Lounge on Monday March 18th.  These were some of the issues discussed –

District Plan
The recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel with regard to character precincts and the City Centre Boundary were rejected by a majority of WCC Councillors, who passed amendments to revert to the boundary and precincts which were in the Proposed District Plan.

The next and final step is that Chris Bishop, as the responsible Government Minister, will decide whether to accept the WCC recommendations or to endorse the IHP recommendations. 

There was a brief recap of the preferred Newtown Housing proposal for intensification, mostly in the suburban centre.

Road Safety 
A resident from Roy St pointed out the lack of pedestrian crossings in Newtown. There is particular concern about the safety of children in the area. The meeting agreed to look at following up this issue.

Water Leaks
Wellington South Community Patrol recently counted 36 leaks. Tom Law outlined some examples. 

Festival Feedback 
There was strong support and thanks for everyone, particularly Marion Leighton and others who were instrumental in providing an excellent morning tea for official guests. 

Wellington Heritage Festival 
Alex Hockley, CEO of the Wellington Heritage Festival Trust, outlined plans for this festival, noting that there is more time this year – from Saturday 26th October until Sunday 17th November.

There was considerable interest in potential events in Newtown. Examples include walking tours, static talks, open buildings etc. 
Telling stories inside the buildings they apply to will add to the making the story more compelling. 
Expressions of interest are required by the end of April. 
Rhona volunteered to contact Newtown Community Centre, Newtown School and the Zoo, to see if other organisations are thinking of participating, and/or have ideas to suggest.