Category: NZTA

Now It’s Save the Basin’s Turn: Week 2 At The High Court

Posted on by stb_nyltr0

Most of the first week of NZTA’s appeal in the High Court against the Board of Inquiry decision to decline resource consent for a Basin Reserve flyover has been taken up with the case of the flyover proponents: first NZTA itself, and then the Wellington City Council, whose submission supported part of NZTA’s case.We thank everyone who attended the High Court during the first week and sat through the NZTA and WCC submissions!

But now it’s our turn. Matthew Palmer QC, for Save the Basin and the Mt Victoria Residents’ Association, began presenting our case around Friday lunchtime, and he is currently expected to be continuing to present our case throughout Monday the 27th, and on into Tuesday. Philip Milne will then be presenting the case of The Architectural Centre, before NZTA gets a final right of reply.

So, if you can possibly get along to the High Court on Monday, or during the rest of the coming week, please do so. Here’s what you need to know about coming to the High Court:

http://savethebasin.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/19/the-nztas-high-court-appeal-of-the-basin-flyover-decision-where-when-and-what/

Media Coverage Roundup

Here is some media coverage, mainly focusing on our case:

The NZTA’s High Court Appeal Of The Basin Flyover Decision: Where, When and What

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Here are all the practical details about NZTA’s High Court appeal of the Board of Inquiry decision to decline resource consent for a Basin Reserve flyover. Starts: Monday 20 July Where: High Court, 2 Molesworth St, Court No. 6 (Downstairs). When you enter the building, you will need to go down the lift to find the courtroom and viewing gallery. Ends: The hearing is set down to end on Friday 31 July. However, it may well finish earlier Times: Standard session times are 10am-5pm, with the following breaks: – 11.30-11.45am Morning tea – 1-2.15pm Lunch – 3.30-3.45pm Afternoon tea The judge may decide to vary these times, but will give notice before doing so. There is a cafe in the building. Connectivity: Phones are not allowed on in the courtroom, and unfortunately, there is no free wi-fi in the building. Members of the public: There is public seating in the courts. When you arrive, court officials will give you directions. Please note: there are only around 18 public seats in Court No. 6, so you will need to arrive early, especially on Monday, to ensure you get a seat. Do’s and don’ts Do: Come along when you can. It does make a difference, and you don’t have to stay for a whole day Do: Bring some reading matter for breaks and delays Do: Wear smart casual clothing Do: Rise to your feet when directed, or when the judge rises Don’t: Wear your “Save the Basin” T-shirt – it’s not appropriate for High Court (but we encourage you to wear it everywhere else!) Don’t: Talk, make exasperated faces etc. when in the courtroom Don’t: Have your phone turned on when in the courtroom Don’t: Bring food or drink into the courtroom – but remember, there are plenty of breaks during the day and a cafe nearby You can: Enter and leave the courtroom during sessions, as long as you do so quietly. What to expect – structure of the case How the case proceeds is up to the judge, so what follows is purely indicative, based on experience of similar cases. NZTA will present its case first. This may take up to three days. During this period, interactions will be between NZTA’s lawyer and the judge – don’t expect it to play out like a John Grisham novel, with dramatic cries of “Objection!” Next, the lawyers representing parties opposing NZTA’s case will present their case. At minimum, this will include:

  • Matthew Palmer QC, for Save the Basin Campaign and Mount Victoria Residents’ Association
  • Philip Milne, for The Architectural Centre

Finally, NZTA, as the appellant, will have the right of reply before the case concludes. Media coverage We understand that the Dominion Post, Radio NZ and Newstalk ZB plan to cover the case. Other media may also cover it. There was a preview of the case in the Dominion Post of Saturday 18 July: http://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/69988680/basin-reserve-flyover-battle-set-to-ignite-again-in-the-high-court When we might get a decision There is no fixed date for the judge’s decision, and we probably won’t get any advance warning of the decision release date. As a very rough rule of thumb, a decision during the final quarter of 2015 would not be unexpected. See you at the High Court – and please get in touch if you have any questions via stoptheflyover@gmail.com.

Help Us Save The New Zealand Transport Agency From Itself

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In less than four weeks’ time, on Monday 20 July, the New Zealand Transport Agency’s appeal against the Board of Inquiry decision to decline resource consent for a Basin Reserve flyover begins.

What’s astonishing is that the Transport Agency’s obsession with building a flyover at the Basin Reserve, no matter the cost to the taxpayer, no matter how outdated, ugly and discredited urban flyovers are, is being conducted in the face of research the Transport Agency itself has carried out. It’s described in this report:

Death of the car: Why Generation Y is turning to public transport

and you can find the study itself here:

Public transport and the next generation (NZTA Research Report 569, June 2015)

Historic New Zealand light vehicle traffic forecasts vs actual growth (Source: MoT)
Historic New Zealand light vehicle traffic forecasts vs actual growth (Source: MoT)

The Transport Agency is supposed to be building transport infrastructure to meet future demand – so why does it continues to build motorways, flyovers and the other expensive nostrums of mid-twentieth-century transport planning, instead of spending money on public transport infrastructure for which there is a large and growing unmet demand?

One reason is that a Generation X Government with strong ties to the trucking industry is still committed to its $12 billion Roads of National Significance boondoggle. Another is that the New Zealand Transport Agency was created out of two bodies: Land Transport New Zealand (the policy part) and Transit New Zealand (the road-building part).

Ever since then, Transit has been the large, well-funded tail wagging the small policy dog. Because what Transit knows how to do is build roads, lots of roads, big expensive roads – and by golly, they’re not about to let some pointy-headed policy wonks and their inconvenient research studies stop them.

It seems that, like an addict who knows he or she should stop but wants just one more hit, the Transport Agency is incapable of saving itself from its roadbuilding addiction. So we’re staging an intervention to save NZTA from itself – and save an iconic part of Wellington from NZTA. Donate to help us bring this tragic flyover addiction to an end.

 

Ministry of Transport Research Shows Up NZTA’s Flawed Traffic Projections

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Historic New Zealand light vehicle traffic forecasts vs actual growth (Source: MoT)
Historic New Zealand light vehicle traffic forecasts vs actual growth (Source: MoT)

In trying to justify the Government’s $12 billion “Roads of National Significance” motorway-building programme, which included a Basin Reserve flyover, the New Zealand Transport Agency makes great play of a projected increase in Vehicle Kilometres Travelled (VKT). The growth in VKT, they say, can only be dealt with by building more motorways.

It’s been known for a long time that the second part of this argument is false: there is plentiful evidence from all around the world, and from New Zealand, that building new roading capacity only induces more traffic, thus leading to bigger motorways, thus leading to more traffic…

But, at the Board of Inquiry into the Basin Reserve flyover proposal, NZTA’s claims of growth in VKT was also challenged. Submitters pointed to recent New Zealand research that shows young people, especially in cities, are turning off driving.

Now research by the Ministry of Transport shows that Vehicle Kilometres Travelled in New Zealand has not grown since 2007. You can view this on the Ministry’s own site and also read a detailed analysis by Auckland’s Transport Blog.

Which raises two very basic questions:

1)    Why is NZTA continuing to claim that traffic demand will rise?
2)    Why is the Government continuing to ignore its own research?

You might think – you might very well think – that this is because the Government has bet $12 billion of public money on continuing to ignore the evidence. But I couldn’t possibly comment.

Four Months To Stop A Basin Reserve Flyover: NZ Transport Agency’s High Court Appeal Set Down For Monday 20 July

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Here’s what you need to know:

Short version:

We have four months to raise $50,000 to fight the Transport Agency in the High Court for the future of the Basin Reserve. Donate here: http://savethebasin.org.nz/donate/

Longer version:

  • The New Zealand Transport Agency’s appeal to the High Court of the Board of Inquiry decision to decline resource consent for a Basin Reserve flyover has been set down for Monday 20 July.
  • The hearing is expected to last two weeks.
  • NZTA will be claiming that the Board decision was wrong on various points of law. The Board itself will not be represented at the hearing. That means it’s up to groups like us to defend the Board’s decision.
  • Save the Basin Campaign Inc and Mt Victoria Residents Association have jointly taken on Matthew Palmer QC to act for them at the hearing.
  • We need to raise $50,000 to pay for this legal representation. We have raised a good chunk of this. We have four months to raise the rest.
  • Many of our supporters have already contributed generously, and that’s much appreciated. We’re happy to accept donations via http://savethebasin.org.nz/donate/ but we also need your help with the names of new people to approach.
  • Got a friend who’s opposed to a Basin Reserve flyover and wants to stop it going ahead? Let us know their name and contact details by emailing stoptheflyover@gmail.com, and we’ll approach them.
  • NZTA are using taxpayers’ money – your money – to continue to push for their unwanted, unnecessary, ugly and expensive flyover. By putting our heads and our funds together, we can and will stop them.

The Basin Flyover Board of Inquiry Decision Was Clear. Why Are Councils and NZTA Ignoring It?

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One of the most interesting (and I wish I could say surprising) things about reaction to the Board of Inquiry decision to decline resource consent for a Basin Reserve flyover is how reluctant the New Zealand Transport Agency, many local councils, and flyover cheerleaders in the business community have been to examine what the Board actually said.

Such organisations appear to regard the Board decision as a toxic document that can be handled only with tongs. The idea of paying serious attention to the Board’s conclusions appears not to have occurred to them.

So I was very struck by the following letter, which Kate Zwartz wrote in response to a report in the Petone Herald of Poririua Mayor Nick Leggett and Kapiti Mayor Ross Church applauding NZTA’s plan to appeal the Board’s decision, and asked her for permission to republish it. Over to you, Kate:

How extraordinary that mayors and council executives can applaud the decision of New Zealand Transport Agency, a government body, to throw more public money after bad.

The decision of the Board of Inquiry, which heard months of detailed evidence from both sides, was crystal clear.  Here are a few direct quotes from the Board’s Final Report and Decision, August 2014:

“… the quantum of transportation benefits is substantially less than originally claimed by the Transport Agency.”  [1317]

“… we do not consider the Project can be credited with being a long term solution.”   [504]

“… we have found that there would be significant adverse effects.”  [1182]

“… it is our view that it is impracticable to avoid this structure dominating this sensitive environment.”  [985]

Why is NZTA reluctant to accept this decision?  Let’s get on with designing proper, fit-for-purpose solutions and drop the failed flyover.

Basin Flyover Appeal: NZ Transport Agency Refuses To Learn From Past Mistakes

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The Save the Basin Campaign has described the decision by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) to appeal the Board of Inquiry decision declining consent for its proposed Basin Reserve flyover as an indictment of the Agency’s refusal to learn from its mistakes.

“The Board of Inquiry delivered a comprehensive report giving clear reasons for declining the New Zealand Transport Agency’s poorly conceived and badly put together proposal to build a flyover at the Basin Reserve,” Save the Basin Campaign spokesperson Tim Jones said. “The Board’s decision made it clear that a flyover was not an appropriate structure to build at the Basin Reserve.”

“Instead of accepting this decision, acknowledging the failure of its flyover plans and moving on to develop a better proposal in partnership with the people of Wellington and with community groups, the NZTA has chosen to continue pursuing its flyover plan through the courts,” Mr Jones said. “It seems that the NZTA’s wounded pride is more important to it than developing good transport solutions.”

On Radio New Zealand this week, Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee said in reference to the Basin flyover Board of Inquiry that “good process should not be stalled to save costs”. Clearly, he regards the Board of Inquiry as a good process, but the New Zealand Transport Agency does not. The Save the Basin Campaign thinks that the Minister should have instructed NZTA to stop obsessing over its failed flyover project,  accept the decision and start working on an alternative solution that works for Wellington, rather than wasting more taxpayer dollars on an appeal.

“Wellington is a modern capital city that deserves sustainable, modern transport solutions that take account of a unique urban environment,” Mr Jones said. “It’s time that the NZ Transport Agency recognised that and stopped flogging a dead horse.”

Mr Jones said that Save the Basin would be carefully considering its detailed response to NZTA’s appeal once it had received the appeal documents.

Time to move on from failed flyover plan

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The Save the Basin Campaign is telling local and national politicians it’s “time to move on” from the NZ Transport Agency’s failed plan to build a flyover at the Basin Reserve in central Wellington.

The call comes in the wake of today’s final decision by the basin Bridge Board of Inquiry to decline the NZTA’s resource consent application for its proposed flyover.

Save the Basin Campaign spokesperson Tim Jones says, “The Board’s decision confirms what Save the Basin and many other submitters have said all along. It’s completely inappropriate to build a flyover at the Basin Reserve, and the NZTA, Greater Wellington and Wellington City Council got it wrong when they refused to seriously consider alternative proposals.”

“So now it’s time to move on from the failed flyover plan and come up with a better solution. That doesn’t mean, as some local politicians have suggested, attempting to bundle a flyover proposal up with other transport proposals and trying to sneak it through as part of a package. It does mean developing a solution informed by genuine community engagement and participation – because, as the Board of Inquiry acknowledged, there are genuine non-flyover options that would avoid ruining the environment of the Basin Reserve.”

“New Zealanders’ transport behaviour is changing rapidly. Evidence shows that young urban New Zealanders are increasingly choosing not to drive. This means that old transport assumptions and outdated transport models can’t be trusted when considering future transport needs. So a low-cost interim solution that could later be made permanent is one approach that deserves serious consideration,” Tim Jones concluded.

Save the Basin Campaign Media Release: Greater Wellington and the NZ Transport Agency need to learn from their mistakes

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The Save the Basin Campaign has criticised the paper that Greater Wellington will be considering on Tuesday about the implications of the Basin Bridge Board of Inquiry’s draft decision to decline consent for a Basin Reserve flyover.

The paper calls for the establishment of a joint governance group between the NZ Transport Agency, Greater Wellington and the Wellington City Council to accelerate planning on local transit projects ‘to enable them to facilitate and support a solution to the Basin Reserve’.

It’s a concern that, despite the Board’s decision, the parties believe ‘the Ngauranga to Airport Corridor Plan is still fit for purpose and forms and appropriate basis for developing the transport network of this key corridor’.

Save the Basin Campaign spokesperson Tim Jones said “The NZ Transport Agency, Greater Wellington and Wellington City Council have already had one go at coming up with a so-called ‘solution to the Basin Reserve’. The end result was their proposal for an outdated, ugly, inappropriate and unnecessary flyover. Rightly, the Board of Inquiry rejected this proposal in its draft decision.”

“Rather than looking at the fundamental flaws in their flyover proposal, it appears that Greater Wellington and the NZ Transport Agency may try to bundle a Basin flyover up with some other transport projects in an attempt to make it more palatable,” Tim Jones said. “But however it is packaged, a flyover is still completely inappropriate for the Basin Reserve and the surrounding environment – as the Board of Inquiry found.”

“It’s time for Greater Wellington and the NZ Transport Agency to recognise that they have been barking up the wrong tree,” Tim Jones said. “It’s time for them to pay attention to what flyover opponents argued and the Board has found: that there are non-flyover transport options worth serious consideration.”

“It’s also time for the Wellington City Council to stand up for Wellington, its heritage, and our iconic Basin Reserve,” Tim Jones concluded. “We need a genuine solution based on Wellington’s needs, not a failed ‘solution’ imposed from above.”

Chicken Little versus Reality: Reactions to the Draft Flyover Decision

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As you probably know, the Basin Bridge (i.e. flyover) Board of Inquiry released its draft decision on Tuesday 22 July. In its draft decision, the Board:

Cancelled the Notice of Requirement (NoR) for the construction, operation, and maintenance of State Highway 1 in Wellington City between Paterson Street and Buckle Street/Taranaki Street, and to construct (and where necessary operate and maintain) work that avoids, remedies or mitigates adverse effects.

Declined the resource consent applications.

In other words, they turned down the flyover proposed to them by the New Zealand Transport Agency. Parties (including the applicant and submitters) now have until 19 August to submit comments on any factual errors they find within the draft report, and the Board will release its final decision by Saturday 30 August. Parties then have the opportunity to consider making an appeal on matters of law.

You can download the draft decision from the EPA website (PDF, 6MB)

Media reaction

Not surprisingly, there was a flurry of media reaction when the decision was announced – far too much, in fact, to link all of it here. You can get a good flavour by following the flyover coverage categories in Wellington Scoop and in the Dominion Post. Patrick McCombs’ article Pain, Cost and Embarrassment … Because the Transport Agency Didn’t Listen does a great job of highlighting the many deficiencies of NZTA’s case, and the sloppy arrogance with which the Transport Agency approached the Board hearing.

This pair of posts from Wellington’s Eye of the Fish blog – one before and one after the decision – reflect the surprise many pundits felt about the Board’s decision:

There were also a number of congratulatory messages and supportive statements from political parties including Labour, the Greens, United Future and NZ First, which I’ll cover in a subsequent post. (If I’ve missed any parties out from that list, please let me know!)

The sky isn’t falling, and there is a Plan B

Given previous Boards’ track record of approving Government proposals, it’s understandable that many people were surprised at the decision. What’s less understandable is the failure of a number of local business and civic leaders to either accept or adapt to the situation.

Plainly, many flyover supporters had proceeded on the assumption that the project would be rubber-stamped. The weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth extended from Kirkcaldie and Stains to certain inhabitants of various Council chambers.

Well, here’s some news for the Chicken Littles of Wellington: the sky isn’t falling, and contrary to what a number of local and national politicians have said, there is a plan B – in fact, several other options are on the table and were taken seriously by the Board in its report.

For example, here’s what the draft Board decision says about the Basin Reserve Roundabout Enhancement Option (BRREO) developed by Richard Reid & Associates for the Mount Victoria Residents Association, and presented to the Board hearing:

We concluded that the BRREO concept was not suppositional and was at least worthy of consideration. While not delivering equal transportation benefits to the Project, we found that it may nonetheless deliver measurable transport benefits at considerably less cost and considerably less adverse effects on the environment. We bear in mind that BRREO is still at a provisional or indicative stage and could be subject to further adjustment by further analysis. (pp. 438-9)

So. Options are on the table. Pending the final decision, a flyover isn’t one of them. It’s time for an open, reality-based discussion about what happens next.

 

 

http://www.epa.govt.nz/Resource-management/Basin_Bridge/Pages/Basin_Bridge.aspx