Greater Wellington and the NZ Transport Agency need to learn from their mistakes

The Save the Basin Campaign has criticised the paper that Greater Wellington will be considering on Tuesday about the implications of the Basin Bridge Board of Inquiry's draft decision to decline consent for a Basin Reserve flyover.

The paper calls for the establishment of a joint governance group between the NZ Transport Agency, Greater Wellington and the Wellington City Council to accelerate planning on local transit projects 'to enable them to facilitate and support a solution to the Basin Reserve'.

It’s a concern that, despite the Board’s decision, the parties believe 'the Ngauranga to Airport Corridor Plan is still fit for purpose and forms and appropriate basis for developing the transport network of this key corridor'.

Save the Basin Campaign spokesperson Tim Jones said "The NZ Transport Agency, Greater Wellington and Wellington City Council have already had one go at coming up with a so-called 'solution to the Basin Reserve'. The end result was their proposal for an outdated, ugly, inappropriate and unnecessary flyover. Rightly, the Board of Inquiry rejected this proposal in its draft decision."

"Rather than looking at the fundamental flaws in their flyover proposal, it appears that Greater Wellington and the NZ Transport Agency may try to bundle a Basin flyover up with some other transport projects in an attempt to make it more palatable," Tim Jones said. "But however it is packaged, a flyover is still completely inappropriate for the Basin Reserve and the surrounding environment - as the Board of Inquiry found."

"It's time for Greater Wellington and the NZ Transport Agency to recognise that they have been barking up the wrong tree," Tim Jones said. "It's time for them to pay attention to what flyover opponents argued and the Board has found: that there are non-flyover transport options worth serious consideration."

"It's also time for the Wellington City Council to stand up for Wellington, its heritage, and our iconic Basin Reserve," Tim Jones concluded. "We need a genuine solution based on Wellington's needs, not a failed 'solution' imposed from above."

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