Airport and Community Groups
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Sore Losers: Nick Smith and the Government Water Down the Environmental Legal Assistance Fund
- Save the Basin Reserve!
- The rules of the Ministry for the Environment’s Environmental Legal Assistance Fund, which groups including Save the Basin have used to help fund legal challenges to infrastructure projects, have now been changed so that such applications can be arbitrarily declined, by: The inclusion of a new criterion to consider whether providing ELA funding to the applicant for its involvement in the legal proceedings, will contribute to impeding or delaying the ability of people and communities to provide for their social, economic and cultural well-being in relation to important needs, including employment, housing and infrastructure. I was rung by a Stuff journalist about this and responded on behalf of Save the Basin: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/94323541/quiet-change-to-public-fund-for-environmental-legal-challenges A subsequent exchange in Question Time (see below) makes it very clear that Nick Smith had the Government’s Basin Reserve flyover defeat in mind when he made this move. Nick Smith and the Government appear to think that fits of pique make good public policy. We beg to differ. Question Time 9. EUGENIE SAGE (Green) to the Minister for the Environment: By how much has annual funding for the Environmental Legal Assistance Fund been cut since 2013/14? Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for the Environment): The budget this year is $600,000 per year, as it was last year and the year before. For the 4 years prior to that the budget was $800,000 per year but was repeatedly underspent. The spend in 2013-14 was $555,000, and the average actual spend was $520,000. As much as I like the Minister of Finance, I do not like under-spending my vote so I reduced the budget in 2015-16 and transferred it to increased support for collaborative processes. This is also consistent with our blue-green philosophy of supporting people to find solutions rather than spending it on legal aid to fight disputes. Eugenie Sage: Can he confirm that he created a new criterion for the fund recently so that community groups wanting to challenge council decisions in the courts are likely to be denied funding if their case might “impede or delay” a development project? Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Yes, I have changed the criteria. A new consideration is the issue of housing and infrastructure. The Government makes no apologies for making it harder for groups to get Government money to stop houses and infrastructure from being built. It does not prevent funding being provided in those sorts of cases, but it requires the panel to give consideration to the broader public interest. It simply does not make sense for the Government to be using public money to stop transport projects being built and stop houses being built with legal aid funding. Eugenie Sage: Does he believe that Forest & Bird would have received funding to mount a legal challenge to Bathurst Resources’ proposed coalmine on the Denniston plateau if this new criterion had been in place? Hon Dr NICK SMITH: There is an independent panel that makes the decisions on the issue of the legal aid. What I have added to the criteria is that, alongside the environmental things, issues like infrastructure, jobs, and housing have to be a consideration. But it still will be an independent consideration for the panel. Eugenie Sage: Can he confirm that last year he gave himself the power to decide which cases and which community groups would get environmental legal aid, stripping this power away from the Ministry for the Environment’s chief executive? Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Each year Ministers make a decision about the level of delegations. In this particular case, I decided not to delegate to the Ministry for the Environment, albeit I note that I followed the panel’s advice in every case. In the event that I do not follow the panel’s advice it will be a matter of open public record. Eugenie Sage: Why will he not just own the fact that his Government is trying to stop legal challenges that might impede environmentally destructive development, like the coalmine on the Denniston plateau, the Ruataniwha Dam, and the Basin Reserve flyover? Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I know of many Wellingtonians who would be concerned that the Government was spending money on stopping roading through to the airport being constructed with legal aid funds. So the Government has deliberately put into the environmental legal aid criteria that the panel needs to consider issues like infrastructure and housing. To quote the Minister for Infrastructure: “We are the infrastructure Government.”, and we want to see New Zealanders being able to get around and have a roof over their heads.9. EUGENIE SAGE (Green) to the Minister for the Environment: By how much has annual funding for the Environmental Legal Assistance Fund been cut since 2013/14? Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for the Environment): The budget this year is $600,000 per year, as it was last year and the year before. For the 4 years prior to that the budget was $800,000 per year but was repeatedly underspent. The spend in 2013-14 was $555,000, and the average actual spend was $520,000. As much as I like the Minister of Finance, I do not like under-spending my vote so I reduced the budget in 2015-16 and transferred it to increased support for collaborative processes. This is also consistent with our blue-green philosophy of supporting people to find solutions rather than spending it on legal aid to fight disputes. Eugenie Sage: Can he confirm that he created a new criterion for the fund recently so that community groups wanting to challenge council decisions in the courts are likely to be denied funding if their case might “impede or delay” a development project? Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Yes, I have changed the criteria. A new consideration is the issue of housing and infrastructure. The Government makes no apologies for making it harder for groups to get Government money to stop houses and infrastructure from being built. It does not prevent funding being provided in those sorts of cases, but it requires the panel to give consideration to the broader public interest. It simply does not make sense for the Government to be using public money to stop transport projects being built and stop houses being built with legal aid funding. Eugenie Sage: Does he believe that Forest & Bird would have received funding to mount a legal challenge to Bathurst Resources’ proposed coalmine on the Denniston plateau if this new criterion had been in place? Hon Dr NICK SMITH: There is an independent panel that makes the decisions on the issue of the legal aid. What I have added to the criteria is that, alongside the environmental things, issues like infrastructure, jobs, and housing have to be a consideration. But it still will be an independent consideration for the panel. Eugenie Sage: Can he confirm that last year he gave himself the power to decide which cases and which community groups would get environmental legal aid, stripping this power away from the Ministry for the Environment’s chief executive? Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Each year Ministers make a decision about the level of delegations. In this particular case, I decided not to delegate to the Ministry for the Environment, albeit I note that I followed the panel’s advice in every case. In the event that I do not follow the panel’s advice it will be a matter of open public record. Eugenie Sage: Why will he not just own the fact that his Government is trying to stop legal challenges that might impede environmentally destructive development, like the coalmine on the Denniston plateau, the Ruataniwha Dam, and the Basin Reserve flyover? Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I know of many Wellingtonians who would be concerned that the Government was spending money on stopping roading through to the airport being constructed with legal aid funds. So the Government has deliberately put into the environmental legal aid criteria that the panel needs to consider issues like infrastructure and housing. To quote the Minister for Infrastructure: “We are the infrastructure Government.”, and we want to see New Zealanders being able to get around and have a roof over their heads.
- Accepted from Save the Basin posts by feedreader
- Tagged as:
- water
- government
- airport
- wellington
- art
- housing
- sport
- people
Wellington International Airport, Coutts Street, Rongotai, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6023, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Submit now: Wellington Airport runway extension proposal would mean years of extra heavy truck movements through the Mt Victoria tunnel & past the Basin Reserve
- Save the Basin Reserve!
- Already convinced you don’t want four years of extra heavy truck movements around the Basin Reserve, day and night? Submit now: http://www.
- Accepted from Save the Basin posts
- Tagged as:
- runway-extension
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Wellington's first Dreamliner arrival
- Connect Wellington (Wellington Airport campaign)
- Wellington’s first new generation, Boeing 787 Dreamliner has touched down on Wednesday evening. Arriving in from Nadi, The United Arab Emirates B787-800 is in the Capital for one day on an official presidential visit from Abu Dhabi. Wellington Airport has previously catered for other wide-body aircraft such as the Qantas A330 during the Rugby World cup and the Boeing 777-300ER from Tokyo last year. While Wellington’s runway enables some long haul aircraft to land, the existing runway length limits the take-off weight they can carry.
- Submitted by tonytw1
- Tagged as:
- airport
Wellington International Airport, Coutts Street, Rongotai, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6023, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Wellington City Council Votes to Fund Half the Runway Consenting Work
- Connect Wellington (Wellington Airport campaign)
- Wellington City Council has voted to contribute $1.95 million to start the formal consenting process associated with the proposal to extend Wellington Airport’s runway by 350 metres. Deputy Mayor Justin Lester says the contribution – to be matched by Wellington International Airport Ltd (WIAL) – will fund the estimated $5.9 million cost of a resource consent application to an Environmental Protection Agency board of inquiry.
- Submitted by tonytw1
- Tagged as:
- wellington-city-council
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Runway extension will create significant direct economic benefit for New Zealand and cut traveling time by up to 30 percent
- Connect Wellington (Wellington Airport campaign)
- Extending Wellington Airport’s runway will deliver up to $1.75 billion in direct economic benefits to New Zealand’s economy by 2060 and slash international travelling time by up to a third according to a new report. The economic impact report undertaken by consultancy, EY, shows the direct economic benefit to the Wellington region, between 2020 and 2060, will be up to $684 million in today’s dollars. Wellington Airport Chief Executive, Steve Sanderson, says “the extension would enable the next generation wide-bodied jets to link Wellington with the rapidly expanding Asian market and to North America, growing the number of international visitors to New Zealand and increasing our ability to offer new and more accessible visitor experiences.”
- Submitted by tonytw1
- Tagged as:
- runway-extension
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ANA 777 Charter flight direction from Japan
- Connect Wellington (Wellington Airport campaign)
- Wellington Airport has previously catered for other wide-body aircraft such as the Qantas A330 during the Rugby World cup. While Wellington’s runway enables some long haul aircraft to land with a commercially viable load, the existing runway length limits the maximum available take-off weight. The additional fuel required to reach long haul destinations means that the number of passengers and cargo are restricted on flights beyond Australia.
- Submitted by tonytw1
- Automatically tagged as:
- lobby-groups
- runway-extension
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Airport runway northern extension public meetings
- Kilbirnie, Lyall Bay, Rongotai Progressive (Residents) Association
- Heres the minutes of the Public meeting on 3 July that discussed the proposed Northern Extension of the Airport runway.
- Accepted from Kilbirnie Lyall Bay Rongotai Progressive Association posts
- Tagged as:
- runway-extension
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Airport comments on Runway extension - 16/7/13
- Kilbirnie, Lyall Bay, Rongotai Progressive (Residents) Association
- Wellington Airport advise the resource consent process will take up to two years and cost upwards of two million dollars. It will take the airport around 9 months to put the consent together, before it will be lodged.
- Accepted from Kilbirnie Lyall Bay Rongotai Progressive Association posts
- Tagged as:
- runway-extension
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Airport Roading and Carparks
- Kilbirnie, Lyall Bay, Rongotai Progressive (Residents) Association
- Wellington Airport will provide an update on the carpark works at the end of this month which will include flyers to residents surrounding the airport. This update will also include development works occurring over the next couple of years as outlined in their annual report. Here is a link to the current information on their website.
- Accepted from Kilbirnie Lyall Bay Rongotai Progressive Association posts
- Tagged as:
- airport
Wellington International Airport, Coutts Street, Rongotai, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6023, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Airport Northern Runway Extension Meeting
- Kilbirnie, Lyall Bay, Rongotai Progressive (Residents) Association
- Airport Runway Extension Meeting Organised byRichard Randerson, 13 Matai Rd, Hataitairandersonjr@paradise.
- Accepted from Kilbirnie Lyall Bay Rongotai Progressive Association posts
- Tagged as:
- runway-extension
- hataitai
Hataitai, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Airport development Plans
- Kilbirnie, Lyall Bay, Rongotai Progressive (Residents) Association
- The wellington airport has released its master development plan. While a difficult read, heres the key points.
- Tagged as:
- airport
Wellington International Airport, Coutts Street, Rongotai, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6023, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Airport planners change their minds??
- Kilbirnie, Lyall Bay, Rongotai Progressive (Residents) Association
- Cobham Drive in front of the Airport runway is to be kinked outward towards the sea to accommodate the northern Airport runway safety extension.
- Tagged as:
- airport
Wellington International Airport, Coutts Street, Rongotai, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6023, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Airport Safety Extension Impact on Cobham Drive
- Kilbirnie, Lyall Bay, Rongotai Progressive (Residents) Association
- Cobham Drive in front of the Airport runway is to be kinked outward towards the sea to accommodate the northern Airport runway safety extension.
- Tagged as:
- airport
Wellington International Airport, Coutts Street, Rongotai, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6023, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Airport develops surplus land for non airport business
- Kilbirnie, Lyall Bay, Rongotai Progressive (Residents) Association
- The Airport has lodged applications to develop childcare centre, Signs, office complex, supermarket, gym, bar and other retailing.
- Tagged as:
- airport
Wellington International Airport, Coutts Street, Rongotai, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6023, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Airport tunnel safety concerns
- Kilbirnie, Lyall Bay, Rongotai Progressive (Residents) Association
- We have grave concerns about the safety of pedestrians and cyclists that will use the underpass at the Southern Airport Safety Extension (currently under development).
- Tagged as:
- airport
Wellington International Airport, Coutts Street, Rongotai, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6023, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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New website for the RESA (Runway End Safety Area)
- Kilbirnie, Lyall Bay, Rongotai Progressive (Residents) Association
- Wellington Airport is pleased to announce the new website for the RESA (Runway End Safety Area) developments is now live.
- Tagged as:
- airport
Wellington International Airport, Coutts Street, Rongotai, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6023, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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