Wellington.Scoop
There are very many promises in today’s flood of announcements about transport changes for Wellington. Pick and choose the ones that are credible. Read more »

by Paul Bruce
Wellington’s transport model has failed to deliver, and all the recent studies show more of the same is going to make things worse. We need a different approach if we want a vibrant, economically successful city. Read more »

Wellington.Scoop
There were surprises and challenges in Kevin Laverty’s much-discussed speech to Wellington employers last week. The new CEO of the city council has reinvigorated a number of key debates, and has shown he’s ready to make changes. Read more »

by Kevin Laverty
I was interviewed by the Council on Monday, 17 December. I started my interview with Rudyard Kipling’s epic poem If *. It was written in the early 1900s. Kipling was inspired by a British soldier who led his troops to defeat in the Jameson Raid during the Boer War. Kipling described the qualities needed to deal with adversity, to come to terms with defeat, to move on and ultimately to triumph. The qualities needed in South Africa in 1895 are just as relevant today for Wellington in overcoming a formidable economic challenge: Read more »

by Hayley Robinson
Malcolm Aitken has drawn my attention to the fact that on the ‘Let’s Carpool’ site it’s Kiwi Carpool Week. You could be excused for not battening down the hatches to contain your excitement – and that’s the problem in Wellington. Read more »

by Tim Jones
A number of us from the Save the Basin Campaign spent last Saturday at Whakarongotai Marae in Waikanae, at a hui organised by Save Kapiti spokesperson Bianca Begovich, and wonderfully hosted by the tangata whenua. Read more »

Wellington.Scoop
A promise to make Wellington’s bus services world class had a hollow ring last week. It was made on the 29th day of disruptions to the bus services – which have been proving to be far from world class. Read more »

Scoop Team
Reports of Peter Dunne’s political demise are premature. Ohariu’s fence-sitter can still play the Joker, the card representing the one vote that John Key must have to get his Stazi Bill passed. Read more »

Report from BusinessDesk
Long-term Ohariu MP Peter Dunne has resigned as Minister of Revenue after an investigation into the leaking of a report on the Government Communications Security Bureau pointed to a series of emails between him and the journalist who got the material. Read more »

by David Lee
The Wellington City Council is considering drafting instructions for a bill on the Town Belt which would radically change its status and protection. Councillors are doing this against a background of complaints about their axing of jobs at Citi Operations, and complaints that they don’t know what’s going on in their organisation and that real power lies in the hands of council officers. A similar situation exists with proposed Town Belt legislation. Read more »

by Hayley Robinson
In April this year, I read one too many articles about how our rates were being misspent, and finally snapped. I asked my husband: “If I run for Council, will you divorce me?” He said: “No, that’s a great idea.” Read more »

by David Underwood
John Key was wrong again. Wellington is not dying. It may be resting on its laurels but it’s certainly not dying. Read more »

by Lindsay Shelton
There seems to be a belief, among some people in Wellington, that if you try to ignore serious or embarrassing issues, then they’ll go away or be forgotten. There’ve been some notable silences recently, when the people concerned would have been wiser to have spoken out. Read more »

by Lindsay Shelton
When I reported last week that a city council organisation had received a $5million management fee from the council, there was an angry denial from the organisation’s chairman. Which was strange, as the information came from his annual report. The mystery continues. Read more »

Wellington.Scoop
An apology seems a less than adequate response to the disruptions of Wellington bus services which are now in their ninth day, and continuing. The explanations from the people in charge of the buses seem less than adequate, too. Read more »

Wellington.Scoop
It’s not that we’re obsessed by sewage. But sewage is a recurring topic in Wellington. We first reported sewage spilling on to the South Coast in February 2009, just a few months after Wellington.Scoop had been established. Similar reports are being published this week. With the same explanation from the city council – its Moa Point treatment system can’t cope with heavy rain. Read more »

Wellington.Scoop
Should we be jealous of Auckland because it’s getting a $402million convention centre? Probably not, because the price of the project will be a big increase in gambling in central Auckland. Sky City, which is to pay the costs of building the convention centre alongside its casino-hotel, is being rewarded by the government with 230 more poker machines and forty more gambling tables. Read more »

by Lindsay Shelton
It’s amazing to discover so much misinformation about the flyover that the Transport Agency wants to build at the Basin Reserve. I had two reminders of this yesterday. Read more »