U.S. Olympic dressage team to compete in Wellington April 14, 2021 at 5:50 PM EDT - Updated April 14 at 6:01 PM
The village of Wellington is saddling up for an extended equestrian season with another competition set to take place before the Olympics.
The United States Dressage Team will now ride through South Florida s summer heat and humidity in June, similar to what riders will see in Tokyo during the Olympics. The team has decided to stay in Wellington instead of a tour in Europe before the games. To take the risk of sending the horses and riders all the way over there with the risk somebody gets sick or something goes wrong, that was the first factor, and then there s been an awful outbreak of equine disease over there as well, said Michael Stone, president of Equestrian Sport Productions.
Report being finalised after independent review of Wellington City Council
13 Apr, 2021 02:08 AM
3 minutes to read
Wellington Mayor Andy Foster. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Wellington issues reporter, NZ Heraldgeorgina.campbell@nzme.co.nz
A report is being finalised following an independent review into Wellington City Council s governance, which was announced as tensions boiled over in the capital.
Councillors, the mayor, and independent reviewer Peter Winder will discuss the draft report at a 1pm meeting tomorrow, which is scheduled for about an hour.
It s expected a final report will be made public next week and speculation is already flying about the recommendations, including getting rid of councillor portfolios.
“I’m a huge optimist on Wellington,” he says. Yes the city has issues around its infrastructure and apparent infighting at the city council, but the bigger problem is that the capital has gone from absolutely positive to frequently negative, says Arcus. “My view is, very strongly, that this city has talked itself into a bit of a funk. There are things to be solved . but when you get very granular on these things it can be the woods-from-the-trees stuff.” Positivity is missing, but also a plan on how to get there.
KEVIN STENT/STUFF
Wellington has issues with its pipes, but it’s not just the infrastructure that’s stink. The capital’s attitude is also a bit whiffy, says new Chamber of Commerce boss Simon Arcus.
”My daughter is 10 years old. I haven’t seen her for over 400 days. Which is 10 per cent of her life. ”You don’t want to give up because you know your family is going to be let in, but how much longer can you wait and how much does it take out of one to wait this long? We can do a year, but we can’t do another two years.” Their family sits at the nexus of both the border closure and a near-collapse of our skills-based immigration system. Not only were Dintchev’s husband and daughter stranded more than 11,000 kilometres away when the borders closed, but their residency application is also stuck in the largest backlog of applications in history with wait times now measured in years rather than months. There are 36,000 skilled migrant applications waiting to be processed.
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.