Photo: Liana Pantaleo

by Lindsay Shelton
It was hard to get a direct answer about the flyover from some of the candidates at our Wellington.Scoop mayoral forum last night. But there was a standing-room-only audience (more than 300 people) at PreFab, and friendly responses from all of the eight wannabes. Read more »

by Tim Jones
It’s local body election time, and the candidates are subjecting themselves to a punishing schedule of meetings. The mayoral election field appears to be wide open. Read more »

by Troy Mihaka
What makes a good city councillor? What qualities should we seek in our public officials and how do we decide for whom to vote, so we can be sure hat Wellington is in safe hands. Before we all forget about the City Council until the next election. Read more »

by PCGM
Wellington’s mayoral campaign moved up another notch last week, with a fifth councillor throwing his hat into the ring, allegations of Labour Party dirty politics, and a large helping of schadenfreude from a disaffected and departing council employee. It’s proving to be the most interesting campaign in recent memory. Read more »

by Lindsay Shelton
Can 10,000 people really influence the planning of Wellington’s roads and public transport? Let’s hope that they can, as the “letsgetwellymoving” process is certainly a better one than the seven years when the Transport Agency tried unsuccessfully to dictate what it wanted, ignoring the public and threatening the city council. Read more »

News from LetsGetWellyMoving
From the insights we’ve gained so far from all the surveys and feedback, 12 draft guiding principles have been developed. These urban design and transport principles will be used as the basis for planning and assessing potential solutions. We’ll be seeking community feedback on preferred options early next year. Read more »

News from Save the Basin
The Save the Basin Campaign has welcomed the draft principles for assessing potential Wellington transport solutions developed by the Ngauranga to Airport Governance Group. Save the Basin, which was part of the successful campaign against a proposed Basin Reserve flyover, said that the principles showed the flyover proponents appeared to have learned important lessons from the failed flyover proposal. Read more »

by Ian Apperley
Mayoral candidates are promising everything from second tunnels to a billion dollars in new roads, flyovers, more cycle lanes, cheaper public transport and an end to congestion. All well and good, but not achievable and old thinking. Read more »

by PCGM
Our run through the mayoral field has revealed some real contenders, some wannabes and some rank outsiders. For this week’s edition we thought a bit of summing up would be in order, so readers can start putting pen to paper and ranking candidates as soon as those ballots arrive. Let’s get to the thumbnail sketches of everyone vying for the mayoral chains. Read more »

News from NZTA
Recent growth projections and transport trends for the Horowhenua region have prompted the NZ Transport Agency to undertake more investigations into the Otaki to north of Levin project and its planned transport improvements, before consulting with the community in early 2017. Read more »

by Tim Jones
It’s a tough life being Minister of Transport Simon Bridges. He had ambitious plans to promote electric cars that were shot down by his senior Cabinet colleagues, leading to a lengthy hiatus. Now one of those senior Ministers, Deputy Prime Minister Bill English, has launched an extraordinary attack on the consultative decision-making process that was set up with the support of Minister Bridges in the wake of the Transport Agency’s failed Basin Reserve flyover plans. Read more »

Press Release – Wellington Chamber Of Commerce
Finance Minister Bill English is on the money when he criticises Wellington’s lack of a progressive attitude towards transport solutions, says Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive John Milford. Read more »

Wellington.Scoop
A new $3million initiative was launched last night to take a fresh look at planning Wellington’s roads and transport systems. The partners in the plan – which was developed after the double defeat of the flyover proposed for the Basin Reserve – are the City Council, the Regional Council and the Transport Agency. Community involvement is at the centre of the programme. A flyover is “off the table” and will not be part of the process, says the Aucklander who is directing what is being called “Let’s get Wellington moving.” Read more »

by Lindsay Shelton
After seven years when the Transport Agency, supported by the Regional Council, was notorious for ignoring Wellingtonians as it kept planning the Basin flyover, there’s now a new attitude. Both organisations are saying they want to be listeners instead of dictators. Read more »

Wellington.Scoop
Former regional council chair Fran Wilde, a strong supporter of the defeated Basin Reserve flyover, has been appointed to the Board of the NZ Transport Agency, the entity which spent eight years planning the flyover before it was rejected first by the Board of Inquiry and then by the High Court. Read more »

by Lindsay Shelton
It’s inexplicable that the Transport Agency and its Wellington governance group haven’t been in contact with road designer Richard Reid since December. Reid’s plan to solve traffic issues at the Basin Reserve was given credibility by the flyover board of inquiry. It should be part of the process to fix things around the Basin. Read more »

by Tim Jones
Nothing much has happened on the Basin Reserve traffic planning front since Christmas – but that’s about to change. Read more »

by Tim Jones
It’s been a quiet first few months of 2016, at least in the public eye, as far as post-Basin Reserve flyover transport planning for central Wellington goes. But a burst of articles, presentations and comments signal that this intermission is almost at an end. Read more »