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    • Council's Long Term Plan
      • Wellington City Council's Long Term Plan is our 10 year budget that sets out our priority investments and rates forecasting for the city for the period from 2015 - 2025. All councils are required by law to set a 10-year budget and review it every three years. It covers everything we do and how we pay for it. Wellingtonians know they live in a great city. With access to our harbour, hills, well-paid jobs and education opportunities, Wellington is the envy of many. In recent years our economy has been flatter than we want so we are proposing to invest in local communities and the city's infrastructure to give our economy a boost, create more jobs and ensure that Wellington remains a great place to live for current and future residents. We are not proposing to reduce services and, at the same time, it's our aim to keep rates affordable. A link to our priority projects and how you can give your feedback is here: www.our10yearplan.co.nz...

    • Region's Mayoral Forum Backs Airport Extension
      •     The Wellington region Mayoral Forum has given a significant boost to planning for a 350-metre extension to Wellington Airport’s runway.   The Forum’s Chair, Upper Hutt City Mayor Wayne Guppy, says the proposed extension would unlock the growth potential of central New Zealand through greater air connectivity.    He says the business case for the extension is compelling – with over 700 people per day each way flying long-haul from Wellington’s market catchment, a number that continues to grow.   At its meeting yesterday the Forum yesterday agreed to support in principle a proposal that the region’s councils contribute to the estimated $300 million cost of the extension to the south of the existing runway.   Under the proposal, the region’s nine councils would fund around $150 million of the project cost.   Wellington City Council has included $90 million in its draft 10-year Plan for the project, therefore other councils in the region would have to contribute around $60 million. Wellington City’s share of the funding represents 60% of the total.   According to the discussion paper, the cost to the councils of funding the remaining $60 million equates to an average rate increase across the region of around 1.3% with expected direct and indirect returns on the investment being between $947 million and $1.7 billion as outlined in a strong economic case.   The Forum was updated on progress on the extension proposal – this included confirmation that after public consultation by the airport in the next two or three months, a resource consent application is to be lodged with the Environmental Protection Agency months with a decision expected in 2016.   Mayor Guppy says resource consent would provide the certainty required that the extension project is real and can be done. “It will detail the proposed method of extending into Cook Strait and also address any environmental impacts.”   He adds the Forum’s support-in-principle – while not committing any council to agree funding - is an important step forward. “We do need to collectively give our backing and start the process now of getting more certainty on the component parts of the proposal, in particular the regional funding.”   The Forum’s support demonstrates the backing of the region and will help with the consenting process, securing an airline partner and obtaining support for the remaining funding, says Mayor Guppy.  

    • Region's Mayoral Forum Backs Airport Extension
      • The Wellington region Mayoral Forum has given a significant boost to planning for a 350-metre extension to Wellington Airport’s runway.   The Forum’s Chair, Upper Hutt City Mayor Wayne Guppy, says the proposed extension would unlock the growth potential of central New Zealand through greater air connectivity.    He says the business case for the extension is compelling – with over 700 people per day each way flying long-haul from Wellington’s market catchment, a number that continues to grow.   At its meeting yesterday the Forum yesterday agreed to support in principle a proposal that the region’s councils contribute to the estimated $300 million cost of the extension to the south of the existing runway.   Under the proposal, the region’s nine councils would fund around $150 million of the project cost.   Wellington City Council has included $90 million in its draft 10-year Plan for the project, therefore other councils in the region would have to contribute around $60 million. Wellington City’s share of the funding represents 60% of the total.   According to the discussion paper, the cost to the councils of funding the remaining $60 million equates to an average rate increase across the region of around 1.3% with expected direct and indirect returns on the investment being between $947 million and $1.7 billion as outlined in a strong economic case.   The Forum was updated on progress on the extension proposal – this included confirmation that after public consultation by the airport in the next two or three months, a resource consent application is to be lodged with the Environmental Protection Agency months with a decision expected in 2016.   Mayor Guppy says resource consent would provide the certainty required that the extension project is real and can be done. “It will detail the proposed method of extending into Cook Strait and also address any environmental impacts.”   He adds the Forum’s support-in-principle – while not committing any council to agree funding - is an important step forward. “We do need to collectively give our backing and start the process now of getting more certainty on the component parts of the proposal, in particular the regional funding.”   The Forum’s support demonstrates the backing of the region and will help with the consenting process, securing an airline partner and obtaining support for the remaining funding, says Mayor Guppy.  

    • World Cup Cricket in Wellington
      • A nation united,” screamed the headlines, after the Black Caps historic Cricket World Cup semi-final win. There we all were, backing our team, fingers crossed, face-paint applied.But what about those people that don’t like sport. Or – worse somehow – just don’t care? And given New Zealanders’ abilities in fields like science and film-making, should we still be making such a big deal of sport?  The Black Caps congratulate Trent Boult after he takes a wicket. PHOTOSPORT At its very best, a sporting match is great drama. There are plot twists, narrative flow, heroes and villains. In New Zealand, the villains usually take the form of Australian, South Africans, or English referees. The heart-pounding semi-final, which New Zealand won in the last two balls – after playing for more than nine hours, through rain and injury – was the perfect example. It was a fairy-tale story – two teams who had never made the final, a great sporting rivalry, and the ecstasy of an extremely close finish. Think how few places in our lives we get to feel that intense emotion, says Toni Bruce, an associate professor at Auckland University. That’s the lure of sport. “We believe it’s honest competition, we see people striving and giving everything of themselves. And when it comes down to the wire… we just find ourselves caught up in it…and if ‘we’ win, that moment makes us feel part of something bigger that ourselves.” “There’s something wonderful about trying to pull everybody together into this sense of oneness,” Bruce says. “But in doing that, it actually shuts out a whole lot of people, but we don’t hear about them. They just quietly feel excluded.” When I say that I don’t like sports, people think it’s blasphemous. One of those people is Lisa Johnston, 25, who has just left New Zealand for Melbourne. When she told people she was heading across the ditch, people warned “be careful you don’t switch sides”. “No one actually understands that I have zero interest in sport whatsoever.” “When I say that I don’t like sports, people think it’s, like, blasphemous. I wasn’t into the Cricket World Cup at all and I don’t really like rugby.” “Sport has been a powerful, dominant force in New Zealand’s cultural identity,” says Otago University’s Professor Steve Jackson.  “Having rugby emerge as a sport through which NZ defined itself, and New Zealand males in particular, it held a very central position, but it certainly has changed. I think people have much more flexibility now.” Three-quarters of adults take part in some sort of sporting activity each week. (That makes New Zealand amongst the highest in the world, Sport NZ says [PDF Link].) But Toni Bruce’s research tells a slightly different story about how much we actually care about sport. She looked at the responses to the 2007 and 2011 Rugby World Cups and will repeat it again this year. One of the questions she asked is “how important is it to you that we win the Rugby World Cup? Of her sample of 267, only 52 per cent said it was important to them personally. But when she asked how important do people think it is to other New Zealanders, 83 per cent thought it was important to other New Zealanders. “So, to me, that 31 per cent gap is the cultural story we tell ourselves about how important rugby is to us,” she says. “I think in many ways we are a rugby-mad country – or, we believe we are. So I think what tends to happen is that people who don’t like rugby, or don’t care, or are ambivalent, they just stay silent. “We are a small country, there are not many places in the world where we can be proud and visible, and sport has historically been one of those and continues to be one of those.” But Lisa Johnston finds that frustrating. “As a country, New Zealand can be quite apathetic towards a lot of political issues, but they’ll spent twenty minutes talking about sports…I find it quite weird because none of my family is very into sports, and none of my friends are very into sport. “So in my personal life I don’t really see any of that, but when I am at work, or I am online, or I watch TV and it’s just in your face all the time, and you are kind of less of a Kiwi if you don’t support the sports team.”   Steve Jackson says the value of sport really depends on who you’re asking. Sport does build national cohesion and identity. “And perhaps more recently in terms of what it does to build the New Zealand brand and attract international sporting events and sports tourism.” Think of what having rugby sevens at the Olympics could mean for “the New Zealand brand”. Others might look at the relationship between physical activity and health, and the way that increasing participation rates increases the overall health of the nation. In fact, Sport New Zealand has just launched a new campaign aimed at keeping those rates high. “We know that things are changing and we can’t assume we will always be a sporty, active nation,” Sport NZ Chief Executive Peter Miskimmin said in a media release last month. “Young people have increasingly sedentary lifestyles. Urbanisation and other societal trends are changing the way Kiwis participate. Technology is changing the way people interact with each other and people are fitting sport into increasingly busy lives.” And, of course, there are the negatives. We see it in the media particularly, Professor Jackson says, when something negative happens – violence on or off the field, drug taking, or players indulging in too much “celebration” (whether that’s alcohol, or something more sinister.) And then there’s all the politics, “including how much you spend on ‘investing’ in things like the America’s Cup, or the Rugby World Cup.” “You could kind of see it on Twitter, as a culture, everyone sees the sports teams as something we own collectively as a nation,” Lisa Johnston says. “You can see it especially with, say, the sailing team, because that’s very elitist. You need to have a lot of money to do anything, and it’s kind of like a bunch of rich white dudes in a yacht.” But sport, and in particular sporting events, do make big money for New Zealand. As one of the hosting cities of the Cricket World Cup, Wellington hosted matches, events, and business delegations from around the world. The city’s deputy mayor, Justin Lester, says the tournament was a phenomenal success. Lester says it’s hard to tell how much that might have meant for the local economy – estimates range anywhere from 30 to 70 million dollars. But in marketing terms, he says, the impact is massive. Picture all those sweeping shots of Wellington city from the Cake Tin looking out over the harbour being broadcast to billions of people. Cricket World Cup activities in Wellington Aleyna Martinez/The Wireless A 2011 report from Lincoln University [PDF link] found that the market value of sport and recreation to the New Zealand economy in 2008/09 was estimated to be $5.2 billion, or 2.8 per cent of GDP. That put the sector on a par with the dairy industry’s contribution to the New Zealand economy. In 2011, the Rugby World Cup contributed to the New Zealand economy, through tourist spending, locals spending more in that time, and contractual arrangements like the broadcast rights. Don’t let that fool you, though. “Economic impacts from sporting mega-events can be even more difficult to forecast, as the benefits are often overstated and the costs understated,” writes Massey University’s Dr Sam Richardson. Still, there are a lot of sports that would love to have even a fraction of that 30-70 million dollars. One of them is basketball. New Zealand has its own professional team, the New Zealand Breakers, which despite having won four championships in the Australian National Basketball League, is far from breaking even. The Breakers CEO Richard Clarke says the question of “value” is something the franchise has grappled with. “We started as a club, our owners wanted to make a difference in the community, and the way they do that is by owning a professional basketball team.” But the time has come to say ‘right, well how valuable actually is this thing, do you want it to be sustainable? The ANBL has no centralised funding, which means that, unlike other competitions, the Breakers receive nothing from the league, other than some assistance for travel. Clarke says without sponsors and help from owners Paul and Liz Blackwell, the team would not have survived. “But it’s a pretty big thing to put onto Paul and Liz every year, that they have to fund shortfall, and part of our model isn’t commercially driven – that’s the philanthropy part of it – but yes, we’d like to get to the stage where having the professional team isn’t right on Paul and Liz.” Would Auckland be a poorer city without the Breakers? Clarke hopes so, and points to work that the organisation has done in South Auckland and Northland. “A lot of the research coming through is seeing that the vision of potential in some of those communities doesn’t extend beyond the next couple of streets. So, we’re talking about some of the communities in say, Point England, that have never been into the central city. “Some of our programmes, such as our Hoop Dreams programme, they get a ticket, they get travel on the trains to the game, and we’re talking about what else we can do.” The Breakers have been around since 2003, so there’s a generation of Aucklanders who have never known the city without the team. And everyone loves it, Clarke thinks. “But the time has come to say ‘right, well how valuable actually is this thing, do you want it to be sustainable?’” He says the challenge for basketball is that people aren’t used to going to see it live, or paying for it. “If you want to sit courtside at the [Los Angeles] Lakers, you’re going to be paying $8,000. Here, you’re going to be paying $145. Even in Perth, you’d probably being paying $500. But our model is we still need people to want to come. “And New Zealand is a unique market, because you only need to lose three games, and people will walk away from it. Or, what we’ve encountered is the more successful you are, they less they come.” Clarke calls it being good enough, but not too good. Maybe even when the tickets are relatively inexpensive, people still have to budget how many games they can get to. Or it might be New Zealand’s infamous tall poppy syndrome rearing its head. On the sporting field, we “punch above our weight,” says Justin Lester. We’re brought up generally with backyards and parks, and it’s what kids do. There’s the opportunity to create heroes for kids.” And that doesn’t just go for kids. Camilla Lees is a doctor, a silver fern, and now plays for the Northern Mystics in the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship. Watching the Black Caps semi-final, and the calm with which the players went about their game was inspirational, she says. It’s a World Cup year for netball this year too, so the holy trinity of New Zealand sports will all have a shot at proving this country is the best in the world. This year, Lees has taken time out from being a doctor and has changed franchises so she can concentrate on making the World Cup squad. Between court session, running sessions, and the gym, she trains 3-4 hours a day. And she can see how some people might think that putting a career like medicine on hold to basically exercise full time is a strange life decision. Camilla Lees “It’s a weird thing when you step back and think ‘all we do is throw a ball around this funny little rectangle. But for me it’s been a huge part of my life, and about far more than just the enjoyment. For me it has been about challenging myself and seeing how far I can push myself.” She has always been “quietly competitive,” she says. Having grown up in the country, in Pukekawa, south of Auckland, with two sisters, netball was “just what you did.” Her friends played, and her mum was the coach. “For us there was no other option. You get kind of shoved into sport at a young age. I think the fact that was mum was into netball, and dad was rugby mad, meant we were surrounded by sport from so young, I think it’s ingrained in you.” Not everyone dreams of wearing the Silver Fern though – and Lisa Johnston doesn’t understand why (mostly male) sports stars are always on a pedestal. She points to several sports stars tweeting on Election Day, the Tony Veitch’s return to broadcasting after admitting a serious domestic violence charge.  She says even attending live sport – in this case, an All Whites football game – left her cold. “I really hated the atmosphere – they were doing all these really sexist chants, and the kids were joining in, and it’s just really breeding a culture that’s not very inclusive.” Steve Jackson says those role models – the All Blacks and the Black Caps – are changing. Athletes are branded commodities, either of their chosen sport or for another commercial brand. “It’s part of a wider cultural thing that we see with shows like The X factor, and the rest. Rather than just being a performer, you’re supposed to be a star and stand out from the rest. He says as participation patterns change people are looking to sports like rowing and cycling for role models. “Which is not to say the very strong powerful individual that might be represented by an All Black isn’t still there – but there’s a greater range.” There’s a lot of research that shows that New Zealand nationalism and identity is quite insecure, Auckland University’s Toni Bruce says – a hangover of our colonial past. “In some ways that insecurity is quite healthy, but at the same time, it can lead to quite vicious responses, if people attack one thing that people feel ‘this is what makes me a New Zealander’.” The point of her research, she says, is to unearth those people – about twenty percent of the population – who have no interest in rugby, and give them a place to be able to say that. Some of the people she has already surveyed have been told they’re “un-New Zealand” or “traitors”, and because of that, they stay silent. “So there’s nowhere that that story that we’re a rugby-mad nation gets disrupted.” Perhaps a little more disruption wouldn’t go amiss. 

    • World Cup Cricket in Wellington
      • A nation united,” screamed the headlines, after the Black Caps historic Cricket World Cup semi-final win. There we all were, backing our team, fingers crossed, face-paint applied.But what about those people that don’t like sport. Or – worse somehow – just don’t care? And given New Zealanders’ abilities in fields like science and film-making, should we still be making such a big deal of sport?  The Black Caps congratulate Trent Boult after he takes a wicket. PHOTOSPORT At its very best, a sporting match is great drama. There are plot twists, narrative flow, heroes and villains. In New Zealand, the villains usually take the form of Australian, South Africans, or English referees. The heart-pounding semi-final, which New Zealand won in the last two balls – after playing for more than nine hours, through rain and injury – was the perfect example. It was a fairy-tale story – two teams who had never made the final, a great sporting rivalry, and the ecstasy of an extremely close finish. Think how few places in our lives we get to feel that intense emotion, says Toni Bruce, an associate professor at Auckland University. That’s the lure of sport. “We believe it’s honest competition, we see people striving and giving everything of themselves. And when it comes down to the wire… we just find ourselves caught up in it…and if ‘we’ win, that moment makes us feel part of something bigger that ourselves.” “There’s something wonderful about trying to pull everybody together into this sense of oneness,” Bruce says. “But in doing that, it actually shuts out a whole lot of people, but we don’t hear about them. They just quietly feel excluded.” When I say that I don’t like sports, people think it’s blasphemous. One of those people is Lisa Johnston, 25, who has just left New Zealand for Melbourne. When she told people she was heading across the ditch, people warned “be careful you don’t switch sides”. “No one actually understands that I have zero interest in sport whatsoever.” “When I say that I don’t like sports, people think it’s, like, blasphemous. I wasn’t into the Cricket World Cup at all and I don’t really like rugby.” “Sport has been a powerful, dominant force in New Zealand’s cultural identity,” says Otago University’s Professor Steve Jackson.  “Having rugby emerge as a sport through which NZ defined itself, and New Zealand males in particular, it held a very central position, but it certainly has changed. I think people have much more flexibility now.” Three-quarters of adults take part in some sort of sporting activity each week. (That makes New Zealand amongst the highest in the world, Sport NZ says [PDF Link].) But Toni Bruce’s research tells a slightly different story about how much we actually care about sport. She looked at the responses to the 2007 and 2011 Rugby World Cups and will repeat it again this year. One of the questions she asked is “how important is it to you that we win the Rugby World Cup? Of her sample of 267, only 52 per cent said it was important to them personally. But when she asked how important do people think it is to other New Zealanders, 83 per cent thought it was important to other New Zealanders. “So, to me, that 31 per cent gap is the cultural story we tell ourselves about how important rugby is to us,” she says. “I think in many ways we are a rugby-mad country – or, we believe we are. So I think what tends to happen is that people who don’t like rugby, or don’t care, or are ambivalent, they just stay silent. “We are a small country, there are not many places in the world where we can be proud and visible, and sport has historically been one of those and continues to be one of those.” But Lisa Johnston finds that frustrating. “As a country, New Zealand can be quite apathetic towards a lot of political issues, but they’ll spent twenty minutes talking about sports…I find it quite weird because none of my family is very into sports, and none of my friends are very into sport. “So in my personal life I don’t really see any of that, but when I am at work, or I am online, or I watch TV and it’s just in your face all the time, and you are kind of less of a Kiwi if you don’t support the sports team.”   Steve Jackson says the value of sport really depends on who you’re asking. Sport does build national cohesion and identity. “And perhaps more recently in terms of what it does to build the New Zealand brand and attract international sporting events and sports tourism.” Think of what having rugby sevens at the Olympics could mean for “the New Zealand brand”. Others might look at the relationship between physical activity and health, and the way that increasing participation rates increases the overall health of the nation. In fact, Sport New Zealand has just launched a new campaign aimed at keeping those rates high. “We know that things are changing and we can’t assume we will always be a sporty, active nation,” Sport NZ Chief Executive Peter Miskimmin said in a media release last month. “Young people have increasingly sedentary lifestyles. Urbanisation and other societal trends are changing the way Kiwis participate. Technology is changing the way people interact with each other and people are fitting sport into increasingly busy lives.” And, of course, there are the negatives. We see it in the media particularly, Professor Jackson says, when something negative happens – violence on or off the field, drug taking, or players indulging in too much “celebration” (whether that’s alcohol, or something more sinister.) And then there’s all the politics, “including how much you spend on ‘investing’ in things like the America’s Cup, or the Rugby World Cup.” “You could kind of see it on Twitter, as a culture, everyone sees the sports teams as something we own collectively as a nation,” Lisa Johnston says. “You can see it especially with, say, the sailing team, because that’s very elitist. You need to have a lot of money to do anything, and it’s kind of like a bunch of rich white dudes in a yacht.” But sport, and in particular sporting events, do make big money for New Zealand. As one of the hosting cities of the Cricket World Cup, Wellington hosted matches, events, and business delegations from around the world. The city’s deputy mayor, Justin Lester, says the tournament was a phenomenal success. Lester says it’s hard to tell how much that might have meant for the local economy – estimates range anywhere from 30 to 70 million dollars. But in marketing terms, he says, the impact is massive. Picture all those sweeping shots of Wellington city from the Cake Tin looking out over the harbour being broadcast to billions of people. Cricket World Cup activities in Wellington Aleyna Martinez/The Wireless A 2011 report from Lincoln University [PDF link] found that the market value of sport and recreation to the New Zealand economy in 2008/09 was estimated to be $5.2 billion, or 2.8 per cent of GDP. That put the sector on a par with the dairy industry’s contribution to the New Zealand economy. In 2011, the Rugby World Cup contributed to the New Zealand economy, through tourist spending, locals spending more in that time, and contractual arrangements like the broadcast rights. Don’t let that fool you, though. “Economic impacts from sporting mega-events can be even more difficult to forecast, as the benefits are often overstated and the costs understated,” writes Massey University’s Dr Sam Richardson. Still, there are a lot of sports that would love to have even a fraction of that 30-70 million dollars. One of them is basketball. New Zealand has its own professional team, the New Zealand Breakers, which despite having won four championships in the Australian National Basketball League, is far from breaking even. The Breakers CEO Richard Clarke says the question of “value” is something the franchise has grappled with. “We started as a club, our owners wanted to make a difference in the community, and the way they do that is by owning a professional basketball team.” But the time has come to say ‘right, well how valuable actually is this thing, do you want it to be sustainable? The ANBL has no centralised funding, which means that, unlike other competitions, the Breakers receive nothing from the league, other than some assistance for travel. Clarke says without sponsors and help from owners Paul and Liz Blackwell, the team would not have survived. “But it’s a pretty big thing to put onto Paul and Liz every year, that they have to fund shortfall, and part of our model isn’t commercially driven – that’s the philanthropy part of it – but yes, we’d like to get to the stage where having the professional team isn’t right on Paul and Liz.” Would Auckland be a poorer city without the Breakers? Clarke hopes so, and points to work that the organisation has done in South Auckland and Northland. “A lot of the research coming through is seeing that the vision of potential in some of those communities doesn’t extend beyond the next couple of streets. So, we’re talking about some of the communities in say, Point England, that have never been into the central city. “Some of our programmes, such as our Hoop Dreams programme, they get a ticket, they get travel on the trains to the game, and we’re talking about what else we can do.” The Breakers have been around since 2003, so there’s a generation of Aucklanders who have never known the city without the team. And everyone loves it, Clarke thinks. “But the time has come to say ‘right, well how valuable actually is this thing, do you want it to be sustainable?’” He says the challenge for basketball is that people aren’t used to going to see it live, or paying for it. “If you want to sit courtside at the [Los Angeles] Lakers, you’re going to be paying $8,000. Here, you’re going to be paying $145. Even in Perth, you’d probably being paying $500. But our model is we still need people to want to come. “And New Zealand is a unique market, because you only need to lose three games, and people will walk away from it. Or, what we’ve encountered is the more successful you are, they less they come.” Clarke calls it being good enough, but not too good. Maybe even when the tickets are relatively inexpensive, people still have to budget how many games they can get to. Or it might be New Zealand’s infamous tall poppy syndrome rearing its head. On the sporting field, we “punch above our weight,” says Justin Lester. We’re brought up generally with backyards and parks, and it’s what kids do. There’s the opportunity to create heroes for kids.” And that doesn’t just go for kids. Camilla Lees is a doctor, a silver fern, and now plays for the Northern Mystics in the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship. Watching the Black Caps semi-final, and the calm with which the players went about their game was inspirational, she says. It’s a World Cup year for netball this year too, so the holy trinity of New Zealand sports will all have a shot at proving this country is the best in the world. This year, Lees has taken time out from being a doctor and has changed franchises so she can concentrate on making the World Cup squad. Between court session, running sessions, and the gym, she trains 3-4 hours a day. And she can see how some people might think that putting a career like medicine on hold to basically exercise full time is a strange life decision. Camilla Lees “It’s a weird thing when you step back and think ‘all we do is throw a ball around this funny little rectangle. But for me it’s been a huge part of my life, and about far more than just the enjoyment. For me it has been about challenging myself and seeing how far I can push myself.” She has always been “quietly competitive,” she says. Having grown up in the country, in Pukekawa, south of Auckland, with two sisters, netball was “just what you did.” Her friends played, and her mum was the coach. “For us there was no other option. You get kind of shoved into sport at a young age. I think the fact that was mum was into netball, and dad was rugby mad, meant we were surrounded by sport from so young, I think it’s ingrained in you.” Not everyone dreams of wearing the Silver Fern though – and Lisa Johnston doesn’t understand why (mostly male) sports stars are always on a pedestal. She points to several sports stars tweeting on Election Day, the Tony Veitch’s return to broadcasting after admitting a serious domestic violence charge.  She says even attending live sport – in this case, an All Whites football game – left her cold. “I really hated the atmosphere – they were doing all these really sexist chants, and the kids were joining in, and it’s just really breeding a culture that’s not very inclusive.” Steve Jackson says those role models – the All Blacks and the Black Caps – are changing. Athletes are branded commodities, either of their chosen sport or for another commercial brand. “It’s part of a wider cultural thing that we see with shows like The X factor, and the rest. Rather than just being a performer, you’re supposed to be a star and stand out from the rest. He says as participation patterns change people are looking to sports like rowing and cycling for role models. “Which is not to say the very strong powerful individual that might be represented by an All Black isn’t still there – but there’s a greater range.” There’s a lot of research that shows that New Zealand nationalism and identity is quite insecure, Auckland University’s Toni Bruce says – a hangover of our colonial past. “In some ways that insecurity is quite healthy, but at the same time, it can lead to quite vicious responses, if people attack one thing that people feel ‘this is what makes me a New Zealander’.” The point of her research, she says, is to unearth those people – about twenty percent of the population – who have no interest in rugby, and give them a place to be able to say that. Some of the people she has already surveyed have been told they’re “un-New Zealand” or “traitors”, and because of that, they stay silent. “So there’s nowhere that that story that we’re a rugby-mad nation gets disrupted.” Perhaps a little more disruption wouldn’t go amiss. 

    • Keith Spry Pool redevlopment underway
      • After a period of frustrating delays, the refurbishment of Johnsonville’s Keith Spry Pool will commence on 13 June!! A new learn to swim pool, a children’s play pool and new changing rooms will mark a huge improvement to the current facility. Council staff will run a series of public meetings to keep users and community members informed. Notice updates will also be provided at pool, the Johnsonville Community Centre and the Johnsonville Library.

    • Keith Spry Pool redevlopment underway
      • After a period of frustrating delays, the refurbishment of Johnsonville’s Keith Spry Pool will commence on 13 June!! A new learn to swim pool, a children’s play pool and new changing rooms will mark a huge improvement to the current facility. Council staff will run a series of public meetings to keep users and community members informed. Notice updates will also be provided at pool, the Johnsonville Community Centre and the Johnsonville Library.

    • Resource Consent Lodged for Alex Moore Artificial Turf
      • The Alex Moore artificial turf project is officially underway. A resource consent was jointly lodged by WCC and the Alex Moore Park Sport & Community Group and both groups will work together to ensure its success. The plans show a new car park will be constructed to accommodate the expected additional users. The artificial turf will be located on the bottom field and will run parallel to Broderick Road. The Council is also bringing forward $380,000 of funding for a walking and running track around Alex Moore Park, similar to, but hopefully even better than, the one at Karori Park. New trees will be planted to enhance the area and allow for enhanced recreational use of Alex Moore Park.The aim is to have the turf completed before the winter sports season starts in April 2014. No doubt the many sports enthusiasts in the area will look forward to this immensely!!

    • Resource Consent Lodged for Alex Moore Artificial Turf
      • The Alex Moore artificial turf project is officially underway. A resource consent was jointly lodged by WCC and the Alex Moore Park Sport & Community Group and both groups will work together to ensure its success. The plans show a new car park will be constructed to accommodate the expected additional users. The artificial turf will be located on the bottom field and will run parallel to Broderick Road. The Council is also bringing forward $380,000 of funding for a walking and running track around Alex Moore Park, similar to, but hopefully even better than, the one at Karori Park. New trees will be planted to enhance the area and allow for enhanced recreational use of Alex Moore Park.The aim is to have the turf completed before the winter sports season starts in April 2014. No doubt the many sports enthusiasts in the area will look forward to this immensely!!

    • Westchester Drive opens
      • Wellington’s newest road, Westchester Drive, was officially opened on 20 April 2013. The opening was a resounding success, despite the rain and a healthy dollop of Wellington wind, and a big thank you goes out to the Churton Park Community Association and the Glenside Progressive Association who organised the subsequent festivities and activities.For Churton Park residents the project was some 30 years in the making. For Glenside residents it was a subject of concern due to it dividing their community and increasing traffic volumes in the area. After much hard work and an appeal to the Environment Court, hopefully all parties will consider many outcomes of the project as having a positive outcome. For those unfamiliar with it, Westchester Drive is 800m long and was designed to provide better transport connections for cars, cyclists and pedestrians and also an improved link from the northern end of Churton Park to Glenside and the motorway. It is hoped the construction of Westchester Drive will also provide an additional boost to retailers in the Churton Park Village. Due to the concerns of those Churton Park and Glenside residents affected by Westchester Drive and the associated construction process, an essential consideration of the project was to protect the amenity, environmental and heritage aspects of the area. To help, the stream has been bridged to better protect the waterway and stream life, 4000 native plants are being planted to help restore the stream banks and a section of Stebbings Road has been upgraded for recreational use. A number of non-native trees that severely impacted the sunlight hours of residents were also removed and have subsequently been re-planted with smaller species by a committed group of residents.A beautifully crafted memorial will also be situated on the road to honour an early Glenside settler who was buried in the area.

    • Westchester Drive opens
      • Wellington’s newest road, Westchester Drive, was officially opened on 20 April 2013. The opening was a resounding success, despite the rain and a healthy dollop of Wellington wind, and a big thank you goes out to the Churton Park Community Association and the Glenside Progressive Association who organised the subsequent festivities and activities.For Churton Park residents the project was some 30 years in the making. For Glenside residents it was a subject of concern due to it dividing their community and increasing traffic volumes in the area. After much hard work and an appeal to the Environment Court, hopefully all parties will consider many outcomes of the project as having a positive outcome. For those unfamiliar with it, Westchester Drive is 800m long and was designed to provide better transport connections for cars, cyclists and pedestrians and also an improved link from the northern end of Churton Park to Glenside and the motorway. It is hoped the construction of Westchester Drive will also provide an additional boost to retailers in the Churton Park Village. Due to the concerns of those Churton Park and Glenside residents affected by Westchester Drive and the associated construction process, an essential consideration of the project was to protect the amenity, environmental and heritage aspects of the area. To help, the stream has been bridged to better protect the waterway and stream life, 4000 native plants are being planted to help restore the stream banks and a section of Stebbings Road has been upgraded for recreational use. A number of non-native trees that severely impacted the sunlight hours of residents were also removed and have subsequently been re-planted with smaller species by a committed group of residents.A beautifully crafted memorial will also be situated on the road to honour an early Glenside settler who was buried in the area.

    • Harriet arrives
      • The below is an article written by Katie Chapman of the Dominion Post. She's captured the last three months since the arrival of Harriet extremely well so I'll not try to improve it and will instead paste in full: Justin Lester chokes back tears as he describes the terrifying moments after his second daughter was born. With the family finally all together in their Johnsonville home, the Wellington city councillor gently strokes Harriet's back as she snoozes contentedly on her mum's chest - looking the size of a baby just a few weeks old, not 14 weeks. Harriet was whisked away to Wellington Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit moments after she was born two months early on November 4. After accompanying the vulnerable 1.8 kilogram baby, Mr Lester returned to his wife, Liz, only to discover she'd been taken to surgery after losing too much blood. The two events combined were terrifying, and for a few moments he was worried he'd be a single dad to Harriet and her big sister, Madeleine, 2. "With Harriet it was pretty scary . . . but with Liz, it was pretty upsetting. Essentially she was pretty close to dying." Now all home and with Harriet weighing in at 4kg - and starting to show the family's stubborn trait - the couple are full of praise for the staff who helped them through the first two months. "I just cannot say thank you enough to those lovely, lovely people," Mrs Lester said. "We never for a moment felt that we couldn't trust them." Mrs Lester's waters broke at 30 weeks and she was in hospital until Harriet was born at 33 weeks. After Harriet arrived, she was whisked off and Mrs Lester didn't get to see her until later that night when she was out of surgery. "They wheeled me in in a bed that night and I reached my hand in and touched her back for five minutes, which is not that nice of course - you want a cuddle, you want to have a baby with you." That was the start of a "limbo" life between hospital and home as Harriet gained strength and fought an E. coli infection. She came home four weeks later but was back in hospital with a cold in days - ending up on life support for two more weeks. "We were just so lucky that we got in there [to hospital]. She just crashed so quickly. It wasn't even back to square one - it was worse than square one." Mr Lester agreed: "She was fighting, but at the same time, without all the assistance she was getting she wasn't going to survive." The unit sees up to 1000 babies a year, with up to 40 on the ward at any one time. Neonatal nurse unit manager Rosemary Escott said babies stayed from 24 hours to 4-6 months. Parents could be overwhelmed. "The role requires parents to be involved and to take each day at a time. We tell them it's their job to focus on the baby and it's our job to worry about everything else."

    • Harriet arrives
      • The below is an article written by Katie Chapman of the Dominion Post. She's captured the last three months since the arrival of Harriet extremely well so I'll not try to improve it and will instead paste in full: Justin Lester chokes back tears as he describes the terrifying moments after his second daughter was born. With the family finally all together in their Johnsonville home, the Wellington city councillor gently strokes Harriet's back as she snoozes contentedly on her mum's chest - looking the size of a baby just a few weeks old, not 14 weeks. Harriet was whisked away to Wellington Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit moments after she was born two months early on November 4. After accompanying the vulnerable 1.8 kilogram baby, Mr Lester returned to his wife, Liz, only to discover she'd been taken to surgery after losing too much blood. The two events combined were terrifying, and for a few moments he was worried he'd be a single dad to Harriet and her big sister, Madeleine, 2. "With Harriet it was pretty scary . . . but with Liz, it was pretty upsetting. Essentially she was pretty close to dying." Now all home and with Harriet weighing in at 4kg - and starting to show the family's stubborn trait - the couple are full of praise for the staff who helped them through the first two months. "I just cannot say thank you enough to those lovely, lovely people," Mrs Lester said. "We never for a moment felt that we couldn't trust them." Mrs Lester's waters broke at 30 weeks and she was in hospital until Harriet was born at 33 weeks. After Harriet arrived, she was whisked off and Mrs Lester didn't get to see her until later that night when she was out of surgery. "They wheeled me in in a bed that night and I reached my hand in and touched her back for five minutes, which is not that nice of course - you want a cuddle, you want to have a baby with you." That was the start of a "limbo" life between hospital and home as Harriet gained strength and fought an E. coli infection. She came home four weeks later but was back in hospital with a cold in days - ending up on life support for two more weeks. "We were just so lucky that we got in there [to hospital]. She just crashed so quickly. It wasn't even back to square one - it was worse than square one." Mr Lester agreed: "She was fighting, but at the same time, without all the assistance she was getting she wasn't going to survive." The unit sees up to 1000 babies a year, with up to 40 on the ward at any one time. Neonatal nurse unit manager Rosemary Escott said babies stayed from 24 hours to 4-6 months. Parents could be overwhelmed. "The role requires parents to be involved and to take each day at a time. We tell them it's their job to focus on the baby and it's our job to worry about everything else."

    • Brooklyn Library - Alternative location required
      • Council officers have advised that Brooklyn Library is seisimically prone and that the required stregthening works are not feasible given the cost and the impact it would have on the configuration of the building. If you live in Brooklyn and enjoy the current library service this is less than ideal. As a result Councillors have asked staff to look at alternative accommodation options, be it within a nearby school or the Brooklyn C [...]

    • Brooklyn Library - Alternative location required
      • Council officers have advised that Brooklyn Library is seisimically prone and that the required stregthening works are not feasible given the cost and the impact it would have on the configuration of the building. If you live in Brooklyn and enjoy the current library service this is less than ideal. As a result Councillors have asked staff to look at alternative accommodation options, be it within a nearby school or the Brooklyn Community Centre. In particular, I support the concept of hubbing with other facilities and hopefully this will hve mutual benefit, be it via WCC contributing to rental payments, assisted staffing levels or financial contributions to existing facilities.

    • Brooklyn Library - Alternative location required
      • Council officers have advised that Brooklyn Library is seisimically prone and that the required stregthening works are not feasible given the cost and the impact it would have on the configuration of the building. If you live in Brooklyn and enjoy the current library service this is less than ideal. As a result Councillors have asked staff to look at alternative accommodation options, be it within a nearby school or the Brooklyn Community Centre. In particular, I support the concept of hubbing with other facilities and hopefully this will hve mutual benefit, be it via WCC contributing to rental payments, assisted staffing levels or financial contributions to existing facilities.

    • Council signs off on northern suburbs projects
      • It's taken a while, but we've finally signed off on the Council's Long Term Plan. If you don't work at the Council it's unlikely you'd know what this means so I've set out a description below and some of the highlights for the northern suburbs in particular.Every three years Wellington City Council publishes its "Long Term Plan", which sets out the city's plans for the next 10 years. The Plan includes information on what we'll do, how [...]

    • Council signs off on northern suburbs projects
      • It's taken a while, but we've finally signed off on the Council's Long Term Plan. If you don't work at the Council it's unlikely you'd know what this means so I've set out a description below and some of the highlights for the northern suburbs in particular.Every three years Wellington City Council publishes its "Long Term Plan", which sets out the city's plans for the next 10 years. The Plan includes information on what we'll do, how we'll do it, how much it will cost and how it will be funded. The 2012 Plan was signed off in June and includes the following projects for the northern suburbs:- $18.5m to build a new Johnsonvile Library that caters for the northern suburbs growing population. This work will start in 2015/16.- $2m for new changing rooms and dedicated pools children's play and learn to swim at Keith Spry Pool in 2012.- More than $5m funding for significant roading arounds in Johnsonville to ensure alignment with the new Johnsonville Mall. This is expected to start in 2013.- Funding for the completion of the Tawa Shared Path (walking and cycling).- The construction of a new artificial sports turf at Alex Moore Park in 2013/14.- $380,000 for a community walkway and planting at Alex Moore Park in 2015.- $650,000 for the re-development of Grassless Reserve in Tawa in 2013-14.

    • Council signs off on northern suburbs projects
      • It's taken a while, but we've finally signed off on the Council's Long Term Plan. If you don't work at the Council it's unlikely you'd know what this means so I've set out a description below and some of the highlights for the northern suburbs in particular.Every three years Wellington City Council publishes its "Long Term Plan", which sets out the city's plans for the next 10 years. The Plan includes information on what we'll do, how we'll do it, how much it will cost and how it will be funded. The 2012 Plan was signed off in June and includes the following projects for the northern suburbs:- $18.5m to build a new Johnsonvile Library that caters for the northern suburbs growing population. This work will start in 2015/16.- $2m for new changing rooms and dedicated pools children's play and learn to swim at Keith Spry Pool in 2012.- More than $5m funding for significant roading arounds in Johnsonville to ensure alignment with the new Johnsonville Mall. This is expected to start in 2013.- Funding for the completion of the Tawa Shared Path (walking and cycling).- The construction of a new artificial sports turf at Alex Moore Park in 2013/14.- $380,000 for a community walkway and planting at Alex Moore Park in 2015.- $650,000 for the re-development of Grassless Reserve in Tawa in 2013-14.

    • NZ's Biggest Ropes Playground Opens in Johnsonville
      • I was stoked to be at the opening of the biggest rope-climbing playground in New Zealand at Johnsonville's West Park School last week.The rope-climbing playground is designed for children aged 5-15 but after a rigorous testing process I can confirm that it can also accommodate 33 year old males if they feel so inclined. The structure is 2 metres high and is an old-school playground in that it's more challenging than mode [...]

    • NZ's Biggest Ropes Playground Opens in Johnsonville
      • I was stoked to be at the opening of the biggest rope-climbing playground in New Zealand at Johnsonville's West Park School last week. The rope-climbing playground is designed for children aged 5-15 but after a rigorous testing process I can confirm that it can also accommodate 33 year old males if they feel so inclined. The structure is 2 metres high and is an old-school playground in that it's more challenging than modern playgrounds and is designed to improve physical fitness. Interestingly it can hold as many as 300 kids at a time, although I'm not sure this has been tested to its full extreme yet. The playground is a partnership project between the School's Board of Trustees, Wellington City Council and the Ministry of Education, which is beneficial because it is utilised during school hours by West Park School school kids and after school and on weekends by the community. The total cost of the project was $170,000.

    • NZ's Biggest Ropes Playground Opens in Johnsonville
      • I was stoked to be at the opening of the biggest rope-climbing playground in New Zealand at Johnsonville's West Park School last week. The rope-climbing playground is designed for children aged 5-15 but after a rigorous testing process I can confirm that it can also accommodate 33 year old males if they feel so inclined. The structure is 2 metres high and is an old-school playground in that it's more challenging than modern playgrounds and is designed to improve physical fitness. Interestingly it can hold as many as 300 kids at a time, although I'm not sure this has been tested to its full extreme yet. The playground is a partnership project between the School's Board of Trustees, Wellington City Council and the Ministry of Education, which is beneficial because it is utilised during school hours by West Park School school kids and after school and on weekends by the community. The total cost of the project was $170,000.

    • Churton Park Community Centre
      • New World supermarket opened on the 6th of December 2011 and work continues on the remainder of the Churton Park Retail Centre. This is a fantastic addition to Churton Park and has been well received. The Council is continuing negotiations to lease space for the proposed Community Centre and they are close to being finalised. It has been frustrating for all at the length of time this has taken, but I have received assurances from Cou [...]

    • Churton Park Community Centre
      • New World supermarket opened on the 6th of December 2011 and work continues on the remainder of the Churton Park Retail Centre. This is a fantastic addition to Churton Park and has been well received. The Council is continuing negotiations to lease space for the proposed Community Centre and they are close to being finalised. It has been frustrating for all at the length of time this has taken, but I have received assurances from Council staff that the lease documentation will be completed by the end of March 2012. It is likely that the project would have to re-apply for funding if the lease is not finalised by 30 June 2012, which does not bear thinking about!! Hence the urgency that is now being assumed.

    • Churton Park Community Centre
      • New World supermarket opened on the 6th of December 2011 and work continues on the remainder of the Churton Park Retail Centre. This is a fantastic addition to Churton Park and has been well received. The Council is continuing negotiations to lease space for the proposed Community Centre and they are close to being finalised. It has been frustrating for all at the length of time this has taken, but I have received assurances from Council staff that the lease documentation will be completed by the end of March 2012. It is likely that the project would have to re-apply for funding if the lease is not finalised by 30 June 2012, which does not bear thinking about!! Hence the urgency that is now being assumed.

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