22 May 2012

Saving the Basin

28/09/2011 10:14:00 a.m.

0 Comments

Transport Minister Stephen Joyce was the most unpopular politician at Sunday’s Basin protest. Credit:  wellington.scoop.

Transport Minister Stephen Joyce was the most unpopular politician at Sunday’s Basin protest. Credit: wellington.scoop.

AFTER months of ignoring an alternative design to its controversial flyover options for the Basin Reserve, the New Zealand Transport Agency is now considering the design.
Known as Option X, the plan by the Wellington Architectural Centre puts a tunnel under the National War Memorial Park at a cost of up to $160 million.
Last month the NZTA closed public consultation on its two flyover options, one just 20 metres from the cricket ground and costing $100 million, and the other 65 metres from the ground at a cost of $120 million. Around 2,000 submissions were received, nearly 600 of which expressed an interest in an alternative design, in particular Option X. An NZTA spokesperson confirmed to Capital Times that the agency was considering Option X “along with other submissions.”
Bianca Begovich, who organised Sunday’s “hands around the Basin” demonstration protesting against the flyover plans says she’s delighted the agency has had a change of heart but she remains cautious.
“It’s hard to know if NZTA is just doing lip service,” Begovich says.
Sunday’s protest was a “huge success” with hundreds turning up to the demonstration despite torrential rain, she said.
“We’ll just keep campaigning until NZTA gives Option X an equal footing to its flyover options.”
Meanwhile Wellington City Council is due to make its submission on the NZTA’s proposals after the agency gave council an extension to make up its mind on the plan. A council spokesman says that submission may be put on line as early as tomorrow (September 29). It’s likely the council will give its support to Option X with Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown confirming most councillors supported the option.
“This area of Wellington is an area of national significance,” Wade-Brown says. “You’ve got the War Memorial and the proposed Memorial Park. You’ve got Government House and you’ve got the oldest cricket ground at the Basin reserve. You don’t want that area looking like the backside of a motorway.”
The NZTA will publish a comprehensive report summarising feedback from its consultation next year, along with decisions on the proposals and more detail of the design. Resource Management Act approvals are expected to be sought in either late 2012 or early 2013.
Email This Print

0 Comments

Don't worry, we wont make this public

No comments.

Cover Story

Best of Wellington 2011

Briefs

  • A question of nutrition

    Controversial Washington-based nutritionist Sally Fallon-Morell is to speak in Wellington on March 29.
    Fallon-Morell is the co-founder of the American food lobby group the Weston A. Price Foundation and the author of Nourishing Traditions. She advocates for the consumption of nutritionally dense foods such as lacto-fermented vegetables, stocks and broths, and whole raw dairy products.
    Fallon-Morell will speak at St Patrick’s College Hall on March 29.

  • Relay for cancer

    Organisers say Sunday’s Relay for Life is full to capacity with hundreds of Wellingtonians registered for the event.
    A total of 88 teams, made up of 10 to 500 members, plan to take part with a further 25 teams on the waiting list.
    The 24 hour relay, the Cancer Society’s biggest fundraising event of the year, takes place at Frank Kitts Park from 4pm on March 31.

  • Osteoarthritis awareness

    Arthritis New Zealand has launched a nationwide campaign raise awareness about osteoarthritis. 
    Arthritis is New Zealand’s leading cause of disability, affecting 305,000 adults, and osteoarthritis is its most common form.
    The campaign features television commercials and an interactive website.


  • Wild walk

    Take part in the Big Walk at Zealandia on March 31.
    Walkers can choose a two, five or 10 kilometre walk catering to all fitness levels.
    Money raised will go to the Foundation for Youth Development.

  • School pool

    The opening of the new Khandallah School pool this week means hundreds of children will be able to continue their swimming lessons.
    The pool was the first to receive a grant from Wellington City Council’s Schools Pools Partnership Fund, a fund set up in 2010 to help schools improve their pool facilities.
    Grants from the fund have also been made for pools at Wellington East Girls’ College, Barhampore School and Tawa School.

  • Easter bikers

    Motorcyclists are invited to get on their bikes and collect Easter eggs for families support from the Wellington City Mission.
    The charity run on April 1 is organised by motorcycle lobby group BONZ.
    Eggs can be donated at Red Baron Motorcylces in Alicetown. The registration fee for bikers is $10, plus the cost of Easter eggs.

  • Crafty

    Made on Marion opens on the site of the former Golding Handicrafts site in Marion St, from April 1.  They will continue to supply craft materials.

  • Ze upgrade

    Taranaki Street fuel users will notice that the Z Energy’s former Shell Service Station is closed.  Z are doing a “total revamp”.
    The job will take four weeks.

  • Newlands Moves

    Developer Ayal Aharoni has agreed to build only 90 instead of 220 houses on his six and a half hectares above Ngauranga Gorge in Newlands.  Only low density occupation will be allowed on the remaining 8.4 hectares.


  • Baring Head

    There's a new  draft plan out for what should happen at Baring Head.  It outlines how the Greater Wellington Regional council would like to manage the newest addition to its regional parks network. Grazing animals will go, motorised vehicles will be prohibited, predators will be controlled, and the lighthouse will be preserved. Submissions are invited.


  • It’s a wonder

    A new childcare centre in Newtown says it is dedicated to helping kids grow up healthy in mind, body and spirit. Little Wonders Childcare on Rintoul Street is an independent early childhood education and learning centre, the sixth centre to be opened by its Auckland-based owner. It caters to 100 children aged between three months and five years old and has been open for a little more than seven weeks.

  • Festival treats

    CHILDREN have not been forgotten by organisers of the New Zealand International Arts Festival.
    For a perfect first theatrical experience White tells the story of friends Cotton and Winkle who live in a world where there is no colour and everything is startlingly white. That is until a brightly coloured egg tumbles out of the sky and changes their world for ever.
    White plays at Capital E from March 7-11.
    The tale of Peter and the World also promises to be a magical night for all ages. Sergei Prokofiev’s classic children’s tale is told through film and live music from the NZ Symphony Orchestra at the Michael Fowler Centre on March 9.
    March 11 is Young Writers and Readers Day and readings from children’s writers and illustrators Lynley Dodd and Gavin Bishop.

Reader's Poll

Should TVNZ7 be saved as non-commercial?