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Added on 9 Aug 2010. Last read 4 minutes ago.

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This feed currently contains the following newsitems (total count 25):

    • For the rain, it raineth...
      • This Thursday has been one of those days when it is impossible to believe we have a water crisis and not a water management crisis. Large cities bathed in sunshine for much of the year don't talk about having to ration water. Surely the silver lining of all this rain in a small but truly fabulous city must be no worries about having water on tap. However I do think we should be avoiding using more chlorine than necessary. That is why I am rather keen on the German practice of collecting water from downpipes for use in gardens - when the sun deigns to stay around a while.

    • A thanks to Wellingtonians
      • Campaigning can be full on. Today it was up at 6 a.m. and battling the breeze as I stood on the traffic lights as cars poured down from Wadestown and up off the Hutt Rd, a bill board threatening to follow the vagaries of the wind with every gust. I thought I would hate doing this but what is impressive is the civility of the Wellingtonians who don't agree with me and even better, truly heartwarming is the good will of Wellingtonians who toot and chat and pat me on the back. Thank you all so much.

    • A reminder of things I support
      • I support:more resources for our suburbs including artificial turf on our playing fieldsclusters, citywide ultra fast broadband and helping Wellington businesses into export marketssmoothing traffic flows through our city - especially to and from the airportno long term contracting out of water managementa review of waterfront managementbetter follow through of council - citizen communications

    • A Cautionary Tale a....
      • There is a tendency to belittle the precautionary principle - the idea that even if something isn't proved it shouldn't necessarily be ignored. The more likely a situation is and/or the greater the damage the event could have if it happened, the more likely it is it should be given weight in decision making. Christchurch is a case in point. The University of Canterbury warned there might be a new fault line in the making. The Council knew if they were proved right houses in areas where they planned to build suburbs could subside with catastrophic results. They went ahead on the grounds it was improbable. Not a wise move.

    • Blogging Before Bed: Amenities in the suburbs
      • I have some problems with the concept of concentrating amenities around major hubs. I don't mind supermarkets, dress shops and the like being bunched up conveniently - provided its all decently planned - but every suburb needs places where people can need for a variety of activities. It's the way communities are built and friendships formed. Yes you can stop and chat when you run into someone in the mall but that's not the same as doing things together with your neighbours. And when all your leisure activities take place in large facilities, it can make you feel a bit anonymous.

    • Beating Rate Rises - If you cab afford it.
      • The WCC has sent out a notice reminding ratepayers of the GST increase in October and suggesting a way of avoiding that increase at least for this year by paying installments 2, 3 and 4 right away. A good idea - if you have the ready.

    • Encroachments Episode Four (Final)
      • Councillors hearing submissions on the encroachment policy said that they hadn't realised the proposed changes would have on individual ratepayers. They dismissed suggestions by submitters that this was a money grabbing exercise. 'No', they said, "it was merely intended to have fairer results so people in the outer suburbs paid less that those with more prestigious properties. But surely if fairness was your aim wouldn't you ask your policy advisers to crunch the numbers to find out just what the effects were? In fact whatever the aims good governance requires all public bodies - and private boards to have costs and other financial impacts at their finger tips before they make any decisions. A bit worrying really.

    • Encroachments Three
      • Well for many years the Wellington City Council has charged ratepayers who beautify or build garages over Council embankments or roadside verges anything from about thirty to a few hundred dollars a year. This peppercorn rent reflected the more or less nil value of the land to anyone but the person owning the property adjoining it. Then some councilors had a bright idea. Why not calculate the license fee on the value it would have if it belonged to the licensee? After all a verge in Kelburn must be worth more than an embankment in Melrose. Everyone must see the justice in that. Well they didn't. Submissions poured into the Council. One homeowner at the hearings pointed out he paid rates of $1300 but the new license fee for his garage and the embankment he kept neat and tidy would be $1800 a year. He said the whole thing looked like a money grabbing exercise to him. But was it? The next episode will reveal all - or almost all.

    • Encroachments Three
      • Well for many years the Wellington City Council has charged ratepayers who beautify or build garages over Council embankments or roadside verges anything from about thirty to a few hundred dollars a year. This peppercorn rent reflected the more or less nil value of the land to anyone but the person owning the property adjoining it. Then some councilors had a bright idea. Why not calculate the license fee on the value it would have if it belonged to the licensee? After all a verge in Kelburn must be worth more than an embankment in Melrose. Everyone must see the justice in that. Well they didn't. Submissions poured into the Council. One homeowner at the hearings pointed out he paid rates of $1300 but the new license fee for his garage and the embankment he kept neat and tidy would be $1800 a year. He said the whole thing looked like a money grabbing exercise to him. But was it? The next episode will reveal all - or almost all.

    • Encroachments Three
      • Well for many years the Wellington City Council has charged ratepayers who beautify or build garages over Council embankments or roadside verges anything from about thirty to a few hundred dollars a year. This peppercorn rent reflected the more or less nil value of the land to anyone but the person owning the property adjoining it. Then some councilors had a bright idea. Why not calculate the license fee on the value it would have if it belonged to the licensee? After all a verge in Kelburn must be worth more than an embankment in Melrose. Everyone must see the justice in that. Well they didn't. Submissions poured into the Council. One homeowner at the hearings pointed out he paid rates of $1300 but the new license fee for his garage and the embankment he kept neat and tidy would be $1800 a year. He said the whole thing looked like a money grabbing exercise to him. But was it? The next episode will reveal all - or almost all.

    • Encroachments - Episode Two
      • Sidewalk cafes have graced the pavements of Europe for centuries. Recently they have ventured onto Wellington streets. Vans selling coffee and icecream have also found a niche on the waterfront and beside office buildings. The owners pay a fee to the Council for the privilege. The Council offsets expenses, the owner makes a profit, the consumer enjoys the service. Happiness all round. With the event of apartments in the CBD balconies cover the heads of passersby. The owners obviously think when they buy, the semblance of indoor/outdoor flow is worth the annual fee they will be obliged to pay the Council. Another win/win situation. Snippets of land left over from a surveyor's calculations, or kept because a road widening never happens, or fall in to council hands who knows why also become encroachments. Adjacent landowners build garages over them, plant flowers and shrubs on them and build ornamental walls to contain them. Ah thinks the Council, they should pay too. But should they? Perhaps you will find out in the next episode.

    • Encroachments - Episode One
      • Wellington is a hilly place - it's part of its charm - but it doesn't lend itself to nice neat sections. Houses wind up and down steep slopes leaving behind a trail of embankments creeping in between roads and paths and people's gardens. One way or another those odd bits of land that are no good to anybody have come to belong to the Wellington City Council. No that's not quite true.. They do have a value. Find out how and why in the next installment tomorrow.

      • Last week the Wellington City Council announced it prosed putting all its events venues under one umbrella. A good move I'd say - it will lead to efficiencies. The problem is the umbrella. It isn't the right shape. The council intends establishing a council controlled organisation with a board that will run it to maximize profits - like a private sector business in other words. But the reason these venues are in council hands is precisely because their purpose is not the same as a private business. They are there first and foremost to build a sense of community, to cater to a diversity of tastes and needs, to foster creativity and set Wellington a buzz with excitement, an expanded vision of the world and new ideas. It requires taking risks and sensibilities that go beyond business acumen. Its quite legitimate to include shows and sporting fixtures with popular appeal and commercial potential in the mix but when profit becomes the dominant motive for selection how dull the fare served up. Look no further than what has happened to TV One.

      • Another book that's well worth reading. It's called 'Ill Fares the Land,' by Tony Judt and it is short, beautifully written and quite, quite brilliant. It traces the recent history of Western political and economic thought, analyses where we are today and poses forceful arguments of why we must again embrace aspirations beyond efficiency and profit to include those values that give us a sense of community.

      • The Mayor of Wellington is back from China. It's too early to see if her mission was successful - trade deals, like all good things take time - but she has talked about a different sort of deal - one that could bring China a great deal of money rather than NZ. She hopes to bring two pandas to the zoo for a year. The poor creatures rent out at $1 million dollars per annum and after that there is the expense of getting them here and housing them and by the sounds of it plane loads of bamboo for food. Then, if the poor things feel like it after the journey and the change in environment and a new climate (no expense) we might be up for another $800,000 for the progeny. Of course we could hope to pay for it with entry fees - it would only take about 300 visitors a day and say $100.00 for a family of four and eureka, bob's your uncle costs covered. However maybe more Wellingtonians would prefer spending that amount on the Newtown Fair and/or the Cuba Street carnival. I don't know but nor does the mayor I suspect - unless she has done a poll. And that is the crux of the matter. In this day and age you can take a poll online and advertise it on local radio and the press. It doesn't take much when over $2,000,000 is at stake to find out how people would prefer you to spend that money. Me? I keep thinking of the poor pandas... but then they might have the best year of their lives here in Wellington... Post me and tell me what you think.

    • Trees - a Topping Topic
      • Last week the Mayor of Lower Hutt was surprised to see a 150 year old Pohutakawa disappear to make way for a church building. No doubt the community group who did it thought it was in a good cause but maybe a large portion of Lower Hutt's citizens were sad to see it go. Even sadder is the fact they had no say in the matter. The Government has removed the need for landowners to consult with their communities on the fate of heritage trees. Now it is up to individual councils to protect those irreplaceable assets. Unfortunately they don't have to if they don't think it is important enough - or like Lower Hutt haven't got round to it. Trees will only be protected it enough members of a Council think defending the public interest is important - more important than some sort of idea that says you should have the right to do what you like with your land and damn everybody else. When I was a law student there was still a vestige of the old concept that the State owned the land. People held rights in it - freehold or leasehold or riparian. The right to use it was limited to what the Crown acknowledged was in the public interest. The concept was not widely known then and now it has completely disappeared from our law. Sometimes Society doesn't moved forward. It reminds me of a cartoon I once saw of the evolution of human kind from monkeys. The last drawing was of a rabbit.

    • Are New Wellington Bus Fares Fair - or Sensible?
      • There seems to be a bit of a disconnect between the Wellington Regional Council transport policy and the needs of Wellington City. I suppose they think they are being down to earth and making good economic sense but in the meantime the Mayor is dreaming of a car free CBD, the Victoria tunnel must close in October, cars crawl into the city at peck hours wasting time and gas and finding a car park is a nightmare if you are in a hurry. As you can see I am addicted to my car but I am extremely grateful to people who take buses. Some need to for economic reasons, others because they are civic minded. For whichever reason it makes sense to get behind them, not provide them with disincentives for using a service when it benefits us all.

    • Wellington's Waterfront
      • Wellingtn has one of the most beautiful settings for a city in the world - I am well traveled and I don't exaggerate. Some of it has been developed with verve and imagination, Chaffers Park being a prime example. But there have been some atrocious blunders, the monstrosity on Queens Wharf. The design isn't bad - in fact it is quite imaginative - but it is all out of proportion with the other buildings around it. It detracts from the gem which sits beside it. Now the current council want to vary the District Plan to allow a wall of high rise buildings to go up along the road edge between it and the railway station. Instead of a site that could be developed to be a priceless, defining feature of the city all they see is dollars that will be spent on less valuable things long before those buildings have met their use by date. How terribly shortsighted.

    • The Mayor in China
      • The Mayor of Wellington is in China drumming up business for local businesses. It is hard to tell from the information on the web and in the media if the visit has been organised well enough to be useful but contacts cities all over the world recognize they can serve businesses in their communities by opening up channels that lead to export opportunities. Yet Rodney Hide - and National - don't think this should be a core activity for local government. Its tough for small businesses from a small far away country to enter export markets. Our businesses need all the support they can get to sell their goods abroad.

    • Get me to the plane on time
      • Recently Wellington's mayor announced an exciting new vision for the City. (After all election time is coming up.) She suggested we should plan to make the CBD free of private cars - in 20 years time. A round of applause if it means somehow the elderly and disabled still have easy access to the centre and working mums and dads can still pick up their kids quickly at the end of the day and tiny tots from creche don't have to wait in the rain for a bus. However I can't help thinking that concentrating our vision on a rosy future is a distraction from a pressing problem at hand. How is the Council going to get people to and from the airport when the Victoria tunnel is closed for upgrading? It's hard enough now as more and more of the day, even in the weekend, resembles a peck hour shambles.

    • Statues or Fun?
      • So, $350 000 for a statue that will be passe in a couple of years. One of those statues like the Queen Victoria ones that cities try to fob off on each other. Yet, those events that help to make Wellington a great place to live or visit like the Cuba Street Carnival and the Newtown Fair can't be held for lack of money. How absurd!

    • How do you achieve active democracy in a city?
      • To me a city council is very similar to the board of a company. However, while the goal of a board to seek the best financial outcome for its shareholders, the aim of a city council is to provide all residents with an aesthetically pleasing environment that allows them to thrive socially and economically. To achieve this council must: Inform residents of the issues, the pros and cons of options for achieving them and its preferred option ConsultTake the advice it receives during consultations into serious consideration Be transparent in its decision making A council has the responsibility to ratepayers and residents to: Deliver services as efficiently and as cost effectively as possibleManage assets well Strike rates fairly

    • What is the Council’s role in protecting our environment?
      • To: Protect and maintain our green belt and our other reserves and green spacesActively promote the use of facilities at Zealandia and Otari-Wilton Bush to teach Wellingtonians about our natural heritageMake sure Wellington’s public buildings and public spaces have architectural value – I like the way sculptures are scattered round WellingtonConstruct and maintain in public ownership water, stormwater and sewage facilities that have minimal negative impact on our surroundingsEnsure every part of the city is served with adequate waste disposal and the best feasible recycling facilitiesEncourage a reduction in carbon emissions wherever feasibleDevelop district plans that enhance our natural and built environments and provide facilities that allow Wellingtonians and their communities to thrive – and stick to them save in exceptional circumstancesSee that all new buildings and renovations are well constructedProvide an infrastructure that allows people to get around the city easily and safely by public or private transport , walking, jogging, cycling or runningMaintain effective noise control

    • What does a Council need to do to create a more sophisticated and cosmopolitan city?
      • It must: Foster cultural, economic and sporting ties with the rest of the worldCelebrate the wide variety of cultures that thrive in our City Promote and protect Maori culture which plays such a strong part in forming our identity as New ZealandersMake sure there are venues and facilities for the wide range of activities that interest Wellingtonians Promote the arts and appreciation of the artsPromote sports and sporting events – the Sevens is ours.Ensure all Wellingtonians have access to books, DVDs, CDs, and the internet – a must in the information agePromote architecture that does justice to our unrivalled natural environment

    • How do I think the Council can promote a dynamic economy for Wellington?
      • By: Making sure Wellington has the infrastructure businesses need for growth in a fast developing world Fostering export opportunities for local businessesEnsuring our export industries especially our digital, film and creative are not undermined by unfair competition from abroadPromoting tourismMaking Wellington a prime destination for conferencesPromoting Wellington as first choice for head officesEntering into partnerships with businesses and government to promote developmentSupporting initiatives that will lead to innovationCelebrating achievement

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