Category: NZTA

Save The Basin’s Meeting With The Ngauranga to Airport Governance Group

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Last week, the Ngauranga to Airport Governance Group flew in via private charter flights and met with a number of the groups who had been closely involved in the Basin Reserve flyover hearings – including Save the Basin. We had been pressing for a meeting with the Governance Group, which has been given the responsibility by the Regional Transport Committee for making decisions about post-flyover transport options around the Basin precinct, for some time, and we were pleased that it finally agreed to meet with us and other groups.

Prior to these meetings, Wellington Central MP Grant Robertson called a number of groups together to develop a common approach to the engagement and transport planning processes – a process reflected in this press release from Grant Robertson. Save the Basin was one of the groups that signed on to the letter which Grant Robertson sent the Governance Group.

The meeting itself was brief but constructive. After Save the Basin reiterated our desire for a genuinely consultative and open process to decide on the best transport options around the Basin precinct that also maintained and enhanced the Basin’s significance in terms of heritage, landscape and urban design, the Governance Group assured us that they were committed to the same process, that they found much to agree with in the proposal that Grant Robertson had sent them, and that there was no intention to reintroduce flyover plans by stealth.

So that’s encouraging, but it’s very much early days, and words need to be matched by deeds. Provided the Governance Group’s deeds live up to its words, Save the Basin will be keen to continue to engage with it in 2016.

Grant Robertson: Time for a real say on Basin Reserve transport issues

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The New Zealand Labour Party has just put out the following press release, setting out a community-driven proposed process for making decisions about the future of transport around the Basin Reserve precinct following the defeat of the Transport Agency’s flyover proposal. The Save the Basin Campaign has signed up as one of the groups supporting this proposed process.

– Tim Jones, Save the Basin Campaign Co-Convenor

Time for a real say for Wellingtonians on Basin Reserve transport issues

7 December 2015

A number of community organisations have proposed a new, grassroots process to find a solution to the transport access issues around Wellington’s Basin Reserve, Wellington Central Labour MP Grant Robertson says.

“With the flyover proposal thankfully shelved, it is time to create a sustainable solution for transport access around the Basin Reserve. The community who live and move around the area have spent considerable time and resources opposing NZTA’s ideas, and have now come together to work on a positive alternative.

“As the local MP I brought together a number of groups to see if they could find common ground following the High Court decision on the flyover. The result is a set of principles and a draft process for finding the transport solution for the Basin Reserve.

“The core of the proposal is taking an inclusive approach that builds a solution from the ground up. The principles recognise the importance of the Basin Reserve area as a cultural, heritage and recreational space. They also call for improvements to start with ‘at grade’ solutions that balance the need for all modes of transport.

“The plan is to have a draft design process that would be professionally and independently facilitated, including a public ‘design-a-thon’ and proper testing of all proposals.

“The Board of Inquiry and the Court were very clear that NZTA had not properly assessed alternatives to the flyover, nor had they consulted as well as they should have. It’s time to find a new way to reach the best possible outcome for Wellington.

“Along with these community groups I am asking NZTA, the Wellington City Council and the Greater Wellington Regional Council to adopt a process that gives the people of Wellington a real voice in what happens in this important project,” Grant Robertson said.

“Along with these community groups I am asking NZTA, the Wellington City Council and the Greater Wellington Regional Council to adopt a process that gives the people of Wellington a real voice in what happens in this important project,” Grant Robertson said.

The groups who have agreed to the principles and draft process are: Living Streets Aotearoa, Save the Basin Campaign, Mt Cook Mobilised, Mt Victoria Residents Association, Newtown Residents Association and FIT Wellington. Other groups are likely to sign up in coming weeks.

NZTA Hasn’t Yet Learned The Lesson That A Flyover Is A Terrible Idea For The Basin Reserve

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In response to the defeat of their Basin Flyover proposal in the Board of Inquiry Hearing, NZTA commissioned a Lessons Learnt Review (PDF) from Synergine Consulting. Now, as a result of an Official Information Act request, that November 2014 review has been released. It makes interesting, but depressing, reading – because it look as though NZTA has learned the wrong lessons from their failure of their flyover proposal.

What makes us say that? This quote on p. 7 sums it up:

In all the interviews the LLR (Lessons Learnt Review) team has carried out and in the LLR workshop there was strong support for the bridge option, Option A.

Option A is the flyover NZTA was so keen on building along the Basin Reserve’s north-western boundary. In its detailed analysis of NZTA’s review, which is well worth reading, Wellington Scoop says:

The report indirectly acknowledges opposition to the flyover, but seems to believe that this could somehow have been overcome if the Transport Agency had done more communicating.

 

Of course, NZTA’s high-handed, arrogant communication and “consultation” process didn’t help matters – but the real problem is that building a flyover at the Basin Reserve is a really, really bad idea – and no amount of improved communication or better coordination between project partners is going to change that. Some lessons, it seems, will take a while to learn.

 

 

Is Good Governance About To Break Out?

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The six-member Ngauranga to Airport Governance Group, consisting of two representative each from NZTA, Wellington City Council and Greater Wellington, is the official body with the job of running the post-Basin Flyover decision-making process. You can find out more about it at NZTA’s new Basin Connections website.

Both NZTA and the Minister of Transport made statements in the wake of NZTA’s decision not to pursue further legal action signalling that things were going to change and that NZTA would be turning over a new leaf: out with secrecy and spurious “consultation” processes about decisions already made behind closed door, in with openness and transparency. But the early signals out of the Governance Group were not encouraging.

However, and following pressure applied from various quarters, the just-released minutes of the Governance Group’s 20 October meeting look a lot more promising:

The agreed Programme will be managed in 5 main phases:

1. Engagement with the community and other key stakeholders on establishing process and confirming scope, to begin in early November.

2. Jointly developing urban design and transport principles to guide assessment of scenarios which will be developed in Phase 2.

3. Jointly developing scenarios which will be assessed against criteria based on the agreed principles.

4. Assessment of scenarios to determine the preferred options for more detailed assessment and consent application.

5. Consultation on the assessment of scenarios and on the preferred options to be taken forward to further analysis before consent application.

On the face of it, this process looks closer to the type of thorough and early engagement with the community Save the Basin has been calling for.

Now, all sorts of words of caution are advisable at this point. “Words are wind,” as George R. R. Martin has observed; and, since the Game of Thrones books contain an awful lot of them, he should know. Deeds, not words, will determine whether these promising signs bear fruit. But the possibility is at least worth exploring.

Transport Minister Simon Bridges: NZTA Intends To Enter Into “Open And Collaborative Process” Over Basin Flyover Aftermath

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In a letter to the Save the Basin Campaign (in response to one we sent to John Key soon after the High Court decision was announced), Transport Minister Simon Bridges says some encouraging things:

The NZ Transport Agency advises me that … it intends to enter into an open and collaborative process with councils and the community to spark new conversations and ideas about the best way to deliver substantive solutions to the congestion at the Basin and other pinch points in the network.

I appreciate that you have had a strong interest in this issue over a period of time, and thank you for the time that you have already committed to developing and presenting alternative solutions for consideration.

This is great to hear – but there are concerns that the process adopted so far is neither open nor collaborative, and furthermore that the experts who have developed alternative solutions which the Board of Inquiry said deserved further consideration have not been consulted in the wake of the flyover decision.

Let’s hope that Minister Bridges’ views, as expressed in the letter above, result in the Regional Transport Committee, City and Regional Councillors, and NZTA officials demonstrating a new openness and willingness to genuinely and widely consult on the Basin, and on the best options for Wellington’s transport network.

Wellington Journalists Ask: Can Former Flyover Fans Be Trusted To Evaluate Basin Flyover Alternatives?

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As Wellington Scoop reported on 10 September, a small group of local body politicians and NZTA officials has taken it upon themselves to make decisions about the future of the Basin Reserve – and all but one of those local body politicians was in the pro-flyover camp:

At yesterday’s regional council meeting, three councillors sought an integrated approach to deciding on at-grade roading improvements around the Basin. Paul Bruce and Sue Kedgley were supported by Barbara Donaldson. But Paul Swain refused. He said that a small governance group of himself, Fran Wilde, Celia Wade Brown and Andy Foster, plus two Transport Agency staffers, would make the decision, and would then report back.

In a comment on this article, Councillor Helene Ritchie christened this group the “Secret Six”.

This group subsequently promised to work with the community, but there remain concerns about how well this work will in practice given the composition of that group, and whether they will be prepared to take a fresh and unbiased look at non-flyover options they had previously rejected out of hand.

In the Dominion Post, columnist Dave Armstrong came up with a memorable analogy:

It’s like getting the Keep Our Old Flag Society to design a new flag. Will this group report back with recommendations that are the urban design equivalent of three boring silver ferns and a koru that looks like a cow doing number twos?

Wellington Scoop has dug further into the track record of the members of this “governance group”, and what it has found does not inspire confidence.

For its part, Save the Basin hopes that NZTA’s decision not to pursue its flyover plans through the courts will enable even the most entrenched flyover supporters to think afresh, and we are pleased that the New Zealand Transport Agency has indicated it will take a new and more genuinely consultative approach to post-flyover discussion and decision-making. But we’re mindful of the point the preceding Wellington Scoop report makes in its final paragraph:

No doubt there’s no way of excluding Transport Agency representatives from the next round of road planning for the Basin. But the Agency should consider its past bad behaviour and find some new faces who have the ability to listen, rather than to threaten or dictate or just misrepresent.

As both Wellington Scoop and the Dominion Post have pointed out in these articles, there are real alternatives on the table at the Basin, including the BRREO, Option X and tunnelling. As Dave Armstrong points out, it makes sense to focus on approaches which are low-cost and don’t foreclose other options if they become necessary:

Some critics say that BRREO is only a short-term solution. Even if that is true, wouldn’t it be worth giving it a go? If it works, keep it; if it doesn’t, start digging for a longer-term alternative. When you look at the time and money already been wasted by myopic officials intent on a flyover, BRREO and Option X deserve some serious consideration, not just by sore losers.

What’s more, Wellington transport needs much more than a rethink at the Basin. FIT Wellington and Generation Zero have made a valuable and timely contribution to this debate with their revamped light rail (modern trams) proposal for Wellington, released last week.

What Save the Basin Said To The Regional Transport Committee On Tuesday

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On Tuesday morning, Wellington’s Regional Transport Committee met – the first such meeting since NZTA abandoned its pursuit of a Basin Reserve flyover through the courts. That issue was prominent in public participation, and below you can read what we said in our three-minute slot.

There were many good presentations, among them this one on a revamped light rail (modern tram) proposal for Wellington from FIT Wellington and Generation Zero: http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=81470

Comments to RLTC public participation – 8/9/15 – Tim Jones, Co-Convenor, Save the Basin Campaign Inc.

  1. The NZTA decision not to pursue further legal action over its Basin flyover plans provides a welcome opportunity to advance modern, sustainable transport options for Wellington. But that discussion needs to be about more than transport. As the Board of Inquiry clearly showed in its 2014 report, the landscape, urban design and heritage aspects of the Basin Reserve precinct are of vital importance. This time round, they must be taken into full consideration.
  1. NZTA’s concept of proceeding to make limited optimisation improvements soon is worthwhile. At the Basin, such an approach is entirely compatible with the Basin Reserve Roundabout Enhancement Option (BRREO) or a development thereof. BRREO would be far cheaper and quicker to implement than any other option at the Basin, and it doesn’t foreclose other options if they later prove to be needed. I agree with the Mt Victoria Residents’ Association call for a detailed and fair-minded reconsideration of the BRREO proposal.
  1. The effect of at-grade changes at the Basin can be enhanced by making changes along Kent and Cambridge Tces – I understand the Newtown Residents’ Association and Mt Victoria Residents Association have done some further thinking about what this could entail.
  1. Evidence presented to the Board showed that the congestion problem identified with the Basin has its roots in other parts of Wellington’s transport system. Therefore, we need to look at solutions that can be made across Wellington. To quote Ellen Blake of Living Streets Aotearoa, “What we need is an integrated look at transport issues in Wellington combined with decent urban design and planning”.
  1. It’s time for Greater Wellington and the WCC to work cooperatively on this issue, both with each other and with the community, including community groups and groups with expertise in sustainable transport solutions.

NZTA has decided not to try to appeal the High Court Basin Reserve flyover decision

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The New Zealand Transport Agency has decided not to seek leave to appeal the High Court decision which upheld the Board of Inquiry decision to decline resource consent for a Basin Reserve flyover.

Here is the NZTA statement: http://www.nzta.govt.nz/media-releases/transport-agency-decides-not-to-appeal-high-court-basin-bridge-decision/

The following paragraph is of especial interest:

Ms Chetwynd said that the High Court ruling means this project will not proceed as the Transport Agency does not have the required approvals. She says the Agency is committed to working together with the community and local councils, particularly Wellington City Council and Greater Wellington Regional Council, to spark new conversations and ideas about the best way forward for delivering vital transport improvements for the Capital.

Who will be part of these conversations, and whose voices will be heard? It’s important that, this time, community voices and sustainable transport alternatives are to the fore.

Save the Basin’s press statement in reaction to NZTA’s announcement is below.

Save the Basin Campaign Congratulates New Zealand Transport Agency On Decision Not To Appeal Basin Reserve Flyover Issue Further

The Save the Basin Campaign today said that it was pleased that the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) has decided not to seek leave from the Supreme Court to appeal the High Court decision on its proposed Basin Reserve flyover.

“It’s taken a long time for the NZTA to come to its senses,” said Save the Basin Campaign spokesperson Tim Jones, “but the decision not to pursue further legal action means central and local government and community groups such as ourselves can finally sit down and have a meaningful discussion about the best alternatives for Wellington.”

“That discussion needs to be about more than transport,” Mr Jones added. “As the Board of Inquiry clearly showed in its report, the landscape, urban design and heritage aspects of the Basin Reserve precinct are of vital importance. And what’s more, the transport issue is about more than the Basin Reserve. The decision not to pursue a flyover provides an opportunity for Wellington to develop a modern, sustainable transport system that is appropriate for the 21st century.”

“If central and local government agencies are ready to engage in open, constructive discussion,” Mr Jones concluded, “then Save the Basin will be keen to play its part.”

An Excellent Analysis By The Architectural Centre of NZTA’s Options

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NZTA has until Friday 4 September to decide whether it will seek leave from the Supreme Court to appeal its defeat in the High Court over its Basin Reserve flyover plans.

While we wait to see what their next move is and respond accordingly, it’s well worth reading this excellent analysis of NZTA’s options by The Architectural Centre.

Save the Basin Delighted at High Court Decision

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The High Court this afternoon dismissed the New Zealand Transport Agency’s appeal against the 2014 Board of Inquiry decision to decline resource consent for a Basin Reserve flyover.

The High Court decision is available here: http://courtsofnz.govt.nz/front-page/cases/new-zealand-transport-agency-v-architectural-centre-incorporated-and-ors

Naturally, Save the Basin is delighted! Below is our press release from earlier this afternoon – check out all the coverage and reactions to the decision on Wellington Scoop.

Save the Basin Campaign Delighted by High Court Decision

The Save the Basin Campaign today said that it was delighted the High Court had rejected the New Zealand Transport Agency’s appeal of the 2014 Board of Inquiry decision to decline resource consent for a Basin Reserve flyover.

Save the Basin Campaign spokesperson Tim Jones said that the Campaign was confident the Board of Inquiry decision would stand up under the High Court’s scrutiny, and that the Transport Agency had failed to mount a strong case. He also thanked Matthew Palmer QC, who appeared for Save the Basin at the High Court, and Nathan Ross, who assisted.

“Just because the Transport Agency hates to lose to community groups, that doesn’t mean it has the right to have decisions overturned that it doesn’t like,” said Tim Jones. “We hope the Transport Agency and the Government will finally take the message on board that a Basin Reserve flyover would be ugly, unnecessary, outdated and inappropriate, and that Wellington deserves modern, sustainable transport options that are appropriate for a modern capital city.”

“We hope that the NZTA and the Government have seen sense and will not seek to waste yet more taxpayer money on appealing this decision further,” Mr Jones concluded. “However, if they do try to pursue further legal avenues, we’ll be ready for them.”