Bid to cut back Let’s Get Wellington Moving

By Frank Neill

Wellington City Council will be asked to pass a vote of no confidence in Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) at its meeting on 29 June.

Moved by Wharangi/Onslow-Western Ward Councillor Diane Calvert and seconded by Motukairangi/Eastern Ward Councillor Tim Brown, the motion calls for a vote of no confidence in the Lets Get Wellington Moving programme to deliver what the city needs in an affordable and transparent way.

Four other councillors have also signed the notice of motion – Councillor Ray Chung, Councillor Sarah Free, Councillor Tony Randle and Councillor Nicola Young.

Councillor John Apanowicz was not available to sign when the notice of motion was submitted, but has since added his support.

“It’s a big issue for everyone in the city, because everyone in the city will be paying for it,” Cr Calvert says, referring to the $1.48 billion cost the city council would provide to the $7.4 billion project.

A lot of people, particularly in the suburbs, have a “very strong view about it, especially in light of the rates increase,” she says.

“Retail is suffering in the city centre” because of a drop of patronage and they are also saying “you don’t need to spend this amount of money”.

“People from Ngaio, Khandallah and Johnsonville will drive to Queensgate [in Lower Hutt] and drive to Petone be- cause they can’t get a car park in the city.”

The fact that a big majority of Wellington people oppose the LGWM plans was highlighted by a poll Stuff conducted on 6 June, Ms Calvert says.

The poll asked people if the programme should be ditched, and 71% said it should be. The poll received nearly 3,000 responses by 2pm.

[Although the poll was unscientific, it does provide an indication of what Wellington people think of the LGWM programme.]

A petition in support of the notice of motion may also be launched, the “Independent Herald” has been informed. However the paper was not able to find out the person, group or groups that are looking at setting up a petition.

In the meantime, Cr Calvert is encouraging residents to send letters or emails to the Mayor and Councillors in support of the notice of motion. There will not be a formal consultation on the motion, so sending letters or emails is important, she says. Emails can be sent to mayor@wcc.govt.nz or councillors@wcc.govt.nz.

This message was underlined by the Chair of the Karori Resident Association, Andrea Skews.

“I strongly encourage the community to look into all the details and feed back to council their opinions,” Ms Skews says.

When LGWM was officially launched in 2018, the cost of the plan was estimated at $2.3 billion. It is currently estimated to cost $7.4 billion.

However many people expect it to increase even more.

The LGWM projects are funded by Wellington City Council and Greater Wellington Regional Council, who each pay one fifth. The remaining three fifths is paid by the Government via Waka

Recycling lids

The Newlands Community Centre is now collecting lids that are too small to go into the kerbside recycling.

The centre will take number 2 and number 5 plastics, such as milk bottle lids, yoghurt pot lids, and metal lids like beer caps, wine bottle lids, metal jar lids.

The centre will take the lids to the Sustainability Trust who will then send them to their recycling partners.

Guide for coaches

A new e-guide for sports coaches has been produced by Nuku Ora. The guide covers a range of resources and tools to support coaches on their coaching journey and develop their skills throughout the sports season.

The guide is available at https://www. nukuora.org.nz/support-and-development/community-development/ coach-development/.

Kotahi.

At least three projects are planned in the northern and western suburbs – one in Johnsonville, one in Karori and one in Wadestown.

The Karori and Wadestown projects are currently open for consultation.

LGWM presented its plan for Johnsonville last year, with submissions on the plan closing on 5 December.

It received 1,300 submissions on its proposal to remove 70 cars parks in Johnsonville and Moorefield Roads.

The vast majority of these – around 95% – opposed LGWM’s plan to axe the car parks, Cr Randle told the “Independent Herald” in January.

Both the Johnsonville Business Association and the Johnsonville Community Association came out strongly against LGWM’s proposal, as well as the individual submissions opposing the plan.

Rod Baxter says he was both surprised and humbled to receive the award for services to youth.

“The email went into my junk folder. At first I thought it was spam.”

But then he had a look, and to his surprise found it was genuine. “It’s a hot tip for people to check your spam,” Mr Baxter says.

“I think like most youth workers, we do this work because we care for young people. We don’t do it for awards or honours, and we certainly don’t do it for the money.”

Working with young people, he says, is “cool. It is very rewarding”.

That is mostly because youth is a “period of our lives when a lot of change happens.

“It’s all about long-term service and long-term relationships with young people.

“When you see them develop and flourish that’s what makes it so rewarding.”

Mr Baxter’s current work is with the Prince’s Trust Aotearoa New Zealand (PTANZ), where he has been Chief Executive Officer since 2021 – the year the trust established in New Zealand.

“It’s uncanny that I’m receiving the award in the first King’s Honours list because [King] Charles established the trust to serve young people 50 years ago when he was the Prince of Wales.

“He also believes in long-term service to young people.”

Since it was established, the trust has supported more than one million young people world-wide, Mr Baxter adds.

PTANZ aims s to transform lives and build sustainable communities by enabling young people to complete their journey from education to employment.

During his time with PTANZ, Mr Baxter developed entrepreneurship education programmes to support youth in their engagement with the economy.

He also led the trust to match funding of $2 million seed funding with the Ministry of Youth Development on He K kano, a mentoring and enterprise skill development pilot for youth aged 17 to 30.

PTANZ is just one organisation in which Mr Baxter has worked with youth.

He also worked for the Wellington Boys’ and Girls’ Institute, where he developed projects and programmes for youth across New Zealand.

He was the Project Coordinator for several Wellington City art projects, transforming illegal tagging into iconic legal street art.

Mr Baxter increased ethical practices for youth workers by collaboratively developing the ‘Code of Ethics of Youth Work in New Zealand’ (2008).

While with MSD he co-wrote “Te Kete Aronui: Understanding what looks good in youth enterprise”, an evidence-based outcomes framework that has informed MYD to lift the quality of youth enterprise opportunities.

Mr Baxter has chaired several boards including the National Youth Workers Network Aotearoa, Pathways to Professionalisation Working Group and Korowai Tupu, and regularly facilitates youth development training with Praxis and the New Zealand Youth Mentoring Network.