There has been a changing of the guard at the top of the Let’s Get Welly Moving team. Programme Director Jim Bentley has resigned to take up a position in Australia, and he’s been replaced by Barry Mein.
Barry Mein’s previous position was as Project Director for the Auckland Transport Alignment Project. LGWM says “Barry also brings a lot of transport, local and central government sector experience to the programme and will enable us to learn from the Auckland project, while recognising the uniqueness of our Wellington situation. We look forward to all the experience he will bring to this programme.”
On 7 September, we have our first chance to see whether Barry Mein will continue the generally positive and open-minded approach of his predecessor. Here are the details from LGWM:
Event: Let’s Get Wellington Moving conversation series
Join Let’s Get Wellington Moving onWednesday 7 September at 6pm at Prefab, 14 Jessie St, for a progress update, chance to catch up with the team and meet new Programme Director, Barry Mein.
Networking will be be followed by a couple of brief presentations and lots of time for questions from the floor. We look forward to seeing you there.
Now that the Basin Reserve flyover proposal is consigned to the dustbin of history, work will soon begin on the redevelopment of the Basin Reserve as a cricket and recreation ground – and you have until 12 September to submit your ideas.
We’ve been working on a number of engagement options including the website and general public feedback portal that went live over the weekend — http://redevelopthebasin.org.nz/
We are developing different ways for people to let us know about how they want to use the Basin Reserve and what we can do to make it better for the people of Wellington, both as a premiere cricket venue and as a recreation space.
These are going to be considered as part of preliminary concept designs that local architects, Tennent Brown, have been commissioned to deliver. Once the concept designs are ready, we can continue to engage with people to test and refine our priorities and options before any reports are taken to the Council.
The redevelopment will keep premiere test cricket at the Basin and open it up as a recreation space on non-game days. There will be fancy facility upgrades and better links for pedestrians and cyclists. With your input, we’re going to take a good thing and make it even better.
The Basin Reserve is one of the world’s top ten cricket venues. It’s also one of NZ’s most historic and picturesque cricket grounds. The Basin Reserve Trust has developed a Masterplan to present a 25-year vision for the future of the ground. You can find this plan online.
Heavy trucks: not a good fit for busy city streets
Wellington Airport is seeking resource consent to extend its runway 363 metres into Cook Strait. The economics of this move are dubious – not to mention the question of how much money ratepayers would have to shell out to pay for it – and there are significant adverse environmental effects.
But, from a Save the Basin perspective, the main concern right now is the effects of planned construction traffic on Wellington’s transport system, and particularly on State Highway 1 in the area of the Basin Reserve.
The airport company is planning to run 23-metre long heavy trucks day and night, from 9.30am-2.30pm and 10pm-6am, along State Highway 1 for 3-4 years (and possibly up to 10 years) to transport up to 1.5 million cubic metres of fill between Horokiwi and Kiwi Point quarries and the airport – and then those empty trucks will rumble and bounce their way back to the quarries.
The planned route goes around the Basin Reserve and through the Mt Victoria tunnel – and the airport company is projecting up to 620 of those heavy truck movements a day, at a frequency of up to one heavy truck movement per minute.
Stop and think about that for a minute. Whether you’re a pedestrian, a cyclist, a bus user or a driver, do you think those 620 heavy truck movements a day will improve your transport experience? And how about if you are a resident who is trying to live, work or sleep next to the route?
If that’s something you’d prefer not to experience, you can make a submission against the proposal using the form at http://www.actionstation.org.nz/wellington_airport_extension – you’ll find suggested submission points on the left-hand side of the form. Submissions close at 4.30pm on Friday 12 August.
