save the basin reserve!

Image credit: max_thinks_sees via Flickr, some rights reserved

To help raise awareness about the flyover and its impact on the Basin Reserve, we'll be giving away flyers at the Carols by Candlelight event on Saturday evening. If you're interested in helping out, we'll be at the main entrances to the Basin at about 6:30pm, and will be giving away information for about an hour and a half - after that, we can all go and enjoy the carols!

If you'd like to help, e-mail Iona Pannet - iona.pannett[at]wcc.govt.nz.

The responsible agencies have only presented a single image of what the flyover will look like - and it's a very photogenic artists impression of the main gate. The image is contained in the brochure prepared for the Ngauranga to Airport Corridor Plan, which was distributed as part of the public consultation round.

There are a couple of things to note about this image: (after the jump)

There may be some intermittent service from the savethebasin.org.nz website this weekend as we migrate off the old server onto the new virtual environments. Our apologies in advance for any disruption!

At the public meeting on Tuesday, a number of questions were asked about the heritage status of the Basin Reserve and the various buildings on the grounds. None of the speakers had the answers at their fingertips, but supporter Tom Robinson e-mailed yesterday to say that the Basin precinct is definitely listed on the Historic Places Trust register - there's a listing for the Basin Reserve Historic Area, and another separate listing for the Basin Reserve Pavilion.

That's great news - and the Save The Basin Reserve Trust will contact the Historic Places Trust to see if they have a view about the flyover.

Tip 'o the black cricket cap to Tom.

The Greater Wellington Regional Council, the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and the Wellington City Council released a media statement yesterday that tried to put a positive spin on their proposed flyover, claiming that "the Basin Reserve improvements have yet to be consulted on". This does rather beg the question of what all the Regional Land Transport Strategy and Ngauranga to Airport Corridor Plan consultation was about - all three rounds of it!

There has been some recent reportage of the Save The Basin Reserve campaign:

• TV3's Sunrise programme conducted an interview with Kent Duston regarding the plans for the Basin on Wednesday 26 November.

• TV3 News covered the public meeting on Tuesday 25 November and gave some background on the campaign, including interviews with Kent Duston and Basin Reserve Trust chairperson John Morrison.

• Lindsay Shelton provides insightful commentary on the flyover and its Wellington context on Scoop.

• The debate about the flyover has been gathering steam on The Standard, with plenty of comments about the proposal.

• In its usual display of pro-roading boosterism, the Dominion Post completely fails to make any comment about the flyover, but runs an article on how delightful John Morrison's "lipstick on a pig" stand will look!

• Alexandra Johnson from Whitireia takes a look at the flyover issue and the public meeting on Newswire.

We'll add more media coverage as it occurs.

The alleged purpose of the flyover at the Basin Reserve is to introduce "grade separation" between traffic flowing westwards (from the Mt Victoria tunnel to Buckle Street) and traffic flowing north/south to Newtown and Island Bay. The effect is a flyover approximately 300 metres long, about 8-10 metres in the air. From inside the Basin Reserve, the flyover will be at about the same level as the Eastern Embankment, and completely visible from everywhere on the pitch and in the stands. While the final design has not been presented by the responsible agencies, it seems likely that it will dominate the Basin - visually, aurally, and because of the pollution that will be blowing across the spectator and playing areas in the prevailing northerly breeze.

Here's what the Council's own consultants had to say about the impact of a flyover on the sports ground:

The elevated structure for the grade separation of the Basin Reserve will be visually prominent and will affect the perception, symbolic character and context of the Basin Reserve and will impact on the overall character of the wider surroundings. The grade separation may also adversely affect the experience of those using the Basin Reserve.

These images have been prepared by the Save The Basin Reserve campaign based on the publicly available information - they are 3D renderings of the Basin Reserve flyover shown from above the playing ground. High-resolution JPEG and PDF versions are also available for download.

Tonight's meeting at St Joseph's was very well attended, with nearly 100 people packing the meeting room to hear Cr Iona Pannett, Kent Duston, Cr Celia Wade-Brown and MP Sue Kedgley speak about the impending danger to the Basin Reserve. The meeting heard that the project made no economic sense, would seriously degrade the environment at the Basin, and that much better alternatives were available at much lower cost.

A resolution was passed by the meeting:

"We oppose the construction of the flyover at the Basin Reserve, and that the Save The Basin Reserve Trust should use all legitimate public, political and legal avenues to encourage the responsible agencies to find a better solution.”

The public meeting to save the Basin Reserve from the ill-considered flyover is being held tonight at St Joseph's Church, 150-152 Brougham Street, Mt Victoria. The meeting commences at 7pm. (There's a map to St Joseph's after the jump.)

While the savethebasin.org.nz website is under construction, we thought it was important to provide some information to everyone who wants to know exactly what the NZ Transport Agency and the Greater Wellington Regional Council have planned.

Q: So what are these government agencies planning?
A: The intention is to build an enormous concrete flyover across the northern face of the Basin Reserve linking the entrance to the Mt Victoria tunnel on the eastern side with Buckle Street on the western side - along with a series of onramps and offramps to enable traffic to flow around the Basin. This huge concrete construction will be around 10 metres tall, will cost (we estimate) more than $50 million, and will completely ruin the Basin Reserve as a sporting and cultural venue.