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.

Notes from the meeting held at the St Tom’s Community Lounge, July 17th 2023.

The meeting agenda included:

Newtown Residents’ Association’s 60^th Anniversary Celebrations

The Celebration will be on Saturday 29^th July, with an Open Day for the public to view displays while the Market is open. From 2:30pm – 4:30pm people will be invited to gather in the Hall for afternoon tea, with speeches and cake-cutting from 3pm.

The meeting discussed the information to be displayed during the ‘open day’ part of the event, and the arrangements for the celebratory afternoon tea.

Changes to Incorporated Societies Act 2022

The impression is that NRA already covers off many of these provisions, and that many of the other requirements can be updated in the constitution fairly easily.

New requirements in the Act include that the association must have a disputes resolution process; and there are requirements about who is qualified to be an Officer of a Society. In some circumstances members will be disqualified from being committee officers, e.g. a conviction for a dishonesty related offence.

[The full Act: https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2022/0012/latest/LMS100892.html

A summary of the 1908 Act compared to the 2022 Act: https://is-register.companiesoffice.govt.nz/law-changes-for-societies/key-changes/

The section on the grounds for officer discharge: https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2022/0012/latest/LMS100915.html#LMS100915 The text of this section 47 of the Act is included at the end of the minutes.]

When the Anniversary Festivities are over we will start work on revising the Constitution, and hopefully will have this ready to be voted on at our AGM in September.

WCC Community Facilities Review – https://www.letstalk.wellington.govt.nz/wellingtons-community-facilities Submissions on the draft plan are due  by 5pm on Monday 7^th August.

The meeting discussed various comments about Newtown included in the draft plan. The proposal for Newtown is to “Undertake a suburb-wide needs assessment and feasibility study to assess the optimal network of functional, cohesive and sustainable facilities.”

It was suggested that this review is an opportunity to reopen the request for toilets in Carrara Park, and that a petition (and/or WCC e-petition) would be a good way to gather support from the community (including taking the petition to nearby childcare centres).

Notes from the Newtown Residents’ Association meeting 15 May 2023.

Information from WCC about Newtown Parking Plan, Newtown to Island Bay transitional cycleway and Berhampore village upgrade. 

Vida Christeller, Manager City Design, and Seb Bishop from the Engagement Team attended the meeting to talk about these projects. This was a preliminary discussion, to be followed up in July or August, with formal consultation in September. An information sheet was circulated outlining the process. [The link given in the sheet is out of date. Use this instead for further information- https://www.transportprojects.org.nz/current/berhampore-to-newtown/]

Newtown Parking Plan: At present there are very few parking restrictions in Newtown or Berhampore, meaning that a lot of the parking is taken up by commuters. The expectation for the future Newtown Parking Plan is that much of the parking will be P120 with Residents exempt, with exceptions as appropriate. The formal consultation about the proposals will be in September.

There will also be consultation in September for extending bus and bike road space between Newtown and Island Bay. Seb drew our attention to a report available on consultation regarding bike lane space.  This can be downloaded from: https://www.transportprojects.org.nz/assets/Berhampore-to-Newtown/B2N-BaselineSurvey-Report-22Dec22_FINAL.pdf

Wellington Hospital is working with Council discussing options, particularly regarding parking.

There were numerous comments and questions from the meeting attendees, many about Newtown parking pressures. This included issues about residents’ parking permits – the cost ($195 pa), and the fact that there are many more permits issued than spaces available – which will be addressed in the plan. There will be a variety of priorities regarding who can purchase resident parking permits and who can get an exemption.

What is Reveal?  Rhona Carson, Association President, has had an email saying ​​Reveal will be collecting data along Rintoul St, Luxford St, Adelaide Rd, The Parade, and Reef Street between May 21st and June 9th, but it’s not clear what Reveal is and what the investigation is about. Vida and Seb were not entirely sure, but will find out. [Update from Seb – “This is a project that uses penetrating radar to help see what’s beneath the road. This will produce an accurate map of all the utilities underground which will be extremely useful as we plan and design projects for our city.  You can find out at https://www.reveal.nz/”]

Rhona thanked Vida and Seb for coming to the meeting. We will look forward to further information in the coming months.

An update about the  Proposed District Plan hearings.

There is a lot of information on the Council website regarding the Proposed District Plan – see https://wellington.govt.nz/your-council/plans-policies-and-bylaws/district-plan/proposed-district-plan.

The PDP is now being considered by Resource Management Commissioners.  This is happening in phases, with numerous different streams about different topics. Rhona has made oral submissions on behalf of the Association on Stream 1 – Strategic Direction and Stream 2 – Residential Zones, based on what was in our original submission. Currently those who commented on heritage are being heard – this is stream 3. 

Stream 4 starts on June 20th [now delayed until June 22^nd]. This covers Centres (ie City Centre Zone, Local Centre Zone, etc). Kainga Ora has made a submission proposing that Newtown should be designated a Town Centre, with buildings up to 36m permitted.  Many in the Association believe that there is already more land designated than is required, and allowing more height won’t increase the housing supply but potentially will result in a few large blocks shading everything around them. We intend to argue against the KO proposal. Let Rhona know if you would like to be more involved in this topic – email newtownwellington@gmail.com.

Ideas for celebrating the Newtown Residents’ Association 60th Anniversary on Saturday July 29th.

The ideas discussed mostly centred around commemorating Newtown’s history. There was a proposal to book a venue for the day, as a base for displays and activities.

People are needed for an organising group for the Anniversary celebrations.  Please think about this, and contact newtownwellington@gmail.com if you are interested.

Newtown Community Centre

The Centre was reopened on May 12th. Tom Law noted that there were to be Open Days 5-7pmThursday 18^th May and 2-4pm Sunday 21^st May.

The next meeting will be on Monday June 19th.