D-day for Let's Get Wellington Moving as review set to drop

Friday, 12 February 2021

A mass public transport system is due to be constructed between Wellington Railway Station and the airport as part of the $6.4 billion Let's Get Wellington Moving programme.

An external review into the $6.4 billion Let’s Get Wellington Moving programme is due to be released today.

Stuff revealed in September external consultants had been called in to review the programme of work expected over the next 20 years.

The plan for that work was announced in May 2019 after more than three years of planning and consultation.

The review was commissioned to look into several areas, including governance, potential gaps, “people and culture”, and whether the programme was achievable and could deliver on its objectives.

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Plans to pedestrianise the Golden Mile have faced backlash from business owners worried it will hurt sales. (File photo)

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LGWM representatives told Stuff late last year that several projects included in the programme were on hold while the findings of the review were assessed and an updated “roadmap” was developed.

Programme director Andrew Body was in hot water last year after making a derogatory remark to a central city businesswoman. (File photo)

That was despite more than $12 million being spent on the programme in the 2019-20 financial year, and a further $40m having been budgeted for the 2020-21 financial year.

The programme is a joint initiative between Wellington City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council, and the New Zealand Transport Agency.

LGWM was set up in late 2015 following the agency’s failed proposal to construct a highway flyover 20 metres from the Basin Reserve cricket ground.

A proposed $700 million extra Mt Victoria tunnel is not due to be completed until after 2029. (File photo)

Its programme of work includes several major infrastructure projects, including an extra Mt Victoria tunnel, a new road near the Basin Reserve, and a mass public transport system between the city’s railway station and airport.

However, the only tangible change that has been achieved in the programme’s more than five-year history is reduced traffic speeds in the central city.

Greater Wellington Regional Council chair Daran Ponter said in September he expected the review to “throw up a number of issues”, including staffing gaps and a cumbersome decision-making process.

One source said there were concerns among councillors about the decision-making split among the three programme partners, and the way public consultation was being managed.

That followed a derogatory comment made by programme director Andrew Body to a central city businesswoman during a public meeting in July to discuss plans to revamp the city’s Golden Mile.

Body told the woman: “You look better in the [news]paper than you do in real life.”

Business owners have also raised numerous concerns about the proposals, including a lack of consultation, with more than 300 businesses putting their names to a Wellington Chamber of Commerce submission opposing the plans.

Construction of a mass transit system between the railway station and Newtown is currently scheduled to begin by 2024, with an extension to the airport to begin by 2029.

The extra Mt Victoria tunnel and improvements to the Basin Reserve roundabout – reportedly a tunnel under Sussex St – are not due to be completed until after 2029.

Plans for the Golden Mile revamp, along with a planned pedestrian route across State Highway 1 on Cobham Drive, and improvements to Thorndon Quay and Hutt Rd, were put on hold while the review was assessed by the programme’s partnership board.

A request made by Stuff last year to see the report through the Official Information Act was declined because it was due to be made public at a later date.