City councillor Tamatha Paul wants Wellington’s central city to be car-free by 2025. (File photo)
Nine councillors have supported a call for private vehicles to be removed from Wellington’s central city in the next four years, as part of a move towards a fossil fuel-free city centre by 2025. But on the city’s streets opinions are mixed, with cycle advocate Alex Dyer applauding the move, and the Chamber of Commerce hesitant to put hopes into another yet transport plan. Councillor Tamatha Paul’s notice of motion, which was signed by eight other councillors and sent to chief executive Barbara McKerrow on Thursday, requires council staff to formally report back on the idea no later than September this year.
Wednesday, 7 April 2021, 5:30 am
Wellington Mayor Andy Foster is delighted that the draft
2021-31 Long-term Plan is out for
consultation.
“This draft is ambitious, and it
centres on the much-needed investment in our infrastructure
that our city has been crying out for, and on solving
resilience issues,” he explains. “It is investment we
need to underpin a modern, dynamic, creative, sustainable
city.
“The capital programme is our largest to date,
representing a $400 million greater investment than our last
Long-term Plan, and this in turn will increase Council debt
levels. This does not include the additional $580 million
off-balance sheet responses for funding sludge treatment and
Seventeen years have passed, but Let s Get Wellington Moving plan hasn t budged stuff.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stuff.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
She says the future is converting increasingly empty commercial buildings into apartments to rent and own, and “a walkable, liveable neighbourhood where you can get most of the stuff you need to have a decent life within 15 minutes of active travel . and public transport”. Figures from commercial real estate firm Colliers International show empty commercial space in the capital grew almost 17 per cent in the year to December 2020, from 84,000sqm to 98,000 sqm.
MONIQUE FORD / STUFF/Stuff
Isabella Cawthorn, from Talk Wellington, says more people living in the city centre will mean even more life and vibrancy in the capital. Developers are leading the way in filling that space, and the Wellington City Council has become a fast follower on the back of the Government’s National Policy Statement on Urban Development promoting city intensification and the council’s Planning for Growth and Draft Spatial Plan strategies, which aim to find room for between 50,000 and 80,000 mor
Kevin Stent/Stuff
After five years of consultation, there is still no timeline for when private vehicles will be removed from Wellington s Golden Mile,
Auckland Transport released plans this week which would ban end-to-end traffic from Queen St by mid-2021. Why have changes to Wellington’s Golden Mile taken so much longer? Joel MacManus reports. The 2.4 kilometre ‘’Golden Mile’’ from Lambton Quay to the end of Courtenay Place is not only the heart of Wellington’s nightlife and retail but is the central spine of the public transport network. Almost 95 per cent of buses in Wellington’s centre city pass through the Golden Mile and, on average, other vehicles delay each trip by an average of 3 minutes and 40 seconds.