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Basin Reserve flyover and Government

Just Basin Reserve flyover
    • Sore Losers: Nick Smith and the Government Water Down the Environmental Legal Assistance Fund
      • 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)


    • Divided over the flyover
      • The city council has voted in favour of a flyover at the Basin Reserve, in spite of the fact that the city continues to be deeply divided over the issue. The vote, by 7 to 6, is a disappointment for Mayor Celia Wade-Brown, who has argued against the flyover since she successfully campaigned for the mayoralty against the pro-flyover mayor Kerry Prendergast. It was a narrow win, and for a while the new council had a one-vote majority against the flyover. But then Andy Foster changed sides.
      • Accepted from Wellington Scoop features
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      • wellington-city-council
      • basin-reserve-flyover

        • Basin Reserve, Dufferin Street, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6021, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Flyover vote
      • Later today the Council will vote on their support of the flyover. Related to this, an interesting tidbit came out yesterday and almost slipped me by: “Steps to move state highway traffic off Vivian St are among measures needed to ease the impact of a Basin Reserve flyover, Wellington City Council says.” Holy-moly. That’s new. Up until now some Councilors have been willing to admit privately that the way the Ngauranga to Airport “strategy” completely ignores Vivien Street is absurd. But the Council in an official capacity has, as far as I know, never said anything to this effect before.
      • Accepted from Eye of the Fish feed
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      • basin-reserve-flyover
      • wellington-city-council

        • Basin Reserve, Dufferin Street, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6021, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Mitigation
      • In the case of the Basin Reserve flyover, the Wellington City Council has asked for further “mitigation” of the proposed Flyover (concrete bridge / Option A). For its part, NZTA has also promised some “mitigation” of the effects of the flyover, and says that they will focus on “mitigation” to ensure that the flyover is “integrated”. Trouble is, I’m not really sure that they are talking about the same thing.
      • Accepted from Architecture Centre news
      • Tagged as:
      • wellington-city-council
      • basin-reserve-flyover

        • Basin Reserve, Dufferin Street, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6021, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Unaffordable? Yeah, right
      • The Transport Agency and the like-minded analysts at the city council are telling us that anything other than a flyover is unaffordable at the Basin Reserve. Which is a reminder that the Agency insisted for years it couldn’t afford to put State Highway 1 into a tunnel under the National War Memorial Park. Then came a political decision, instructing the agency to move the highway underground. What had been unaffordable became affordable, in a flash.
      • Accepted from Wellington Scoop features
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      • wellington-city-council

        • Basin Reserve, Dufferin Street, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6021, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Why are Labour's councillors doing Steven Joyce's dirty work?
      • The two Labour councillors on the Wellington City Council, Paul Eagle (Southern Ward) and Leonie Gill (Eastern Ward) enthusiastically got in behind to kowtow to the NZ Transport Agency's demands, and were firm backers of last week's extraordinary Council meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to do one thing, and one thing only - to make sure the Wellington City Council was lined up solidly behind Joyce's roading vision, whilst embarrassing a Mayor who had campaigned on better public transport. Joyce must have had a huge laugh watching these Labour patsies doing his dirty work.
      • Tagged as:
      • wellington-city-council
      • basin-reserve-flyover

        • Basin Reserve, Dufferin Street, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6021, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Wellington Motorway Decision Uproar
      • The issue of Wellington’s future motorway development is getting hotter. The new Mayor is not a big fan of a flyover near the Basin reserve but a group of her councillors are. Following reports some in the NZTA were getting unsettled about the Mayor’s failure to commit to their plans, the councillors have forced through a special meeting on Wednesday for the council to make a call.
      • Submitted by tonytw1
      • Tagged as:
      • wellington-city-council
      • basin-reserve-flyover

        • Basin Reserve, Dufferin Street, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6021, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


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