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Coughlan says revitalisation of Civic precinct a priority

Wellington Mayoral candidate Jo Coughlan today confirmed her commitment to leading a revitalisation of the Civic Square precinct if elected mayor and having the Wellington Town Hall refurbished as a priority as part of this.
Media Release
19 September 2016

Coughlan says revitalisation of Civic precinct a priority

Wellington Mayoral candidate Jo Coughlan today confirmed her commitment to leading a revitalisation of the Civic Square precinct if elected mayor and having the Wellington Town Hall refurbished as a priority as part of this.

"As mayor I will ask our council management and urban planning team to commence work on revitalisation options for the Civic Square precinct. I would like this work to include:

• How best to integrate Jack Ilott Green so that it can become a more utilised public space

• Considering development options for the prime Michael Fowler Centre car park site

• Assessing the feasibility of potentially converting the council office building into a high quality hotel and relocating staff into modern efficient premises

• Considering how council may be able to release funds from surplus office space in the precinct

• To the best extent possible considering how to leverage the potential music hub should the proposal with Victoria University’s NZ School of Music and the NZ Symphony Orchestra proceed

• Moving ahead to refurbish the Town Hall as a priority

“These are some ideas that I believe will revitalise the Civic Square precinct and I am confident there may well be other great ideas that can form part of this. It will require the Council to partner with the private sector, and others, to ensure development options are effective and viable.”

Coughlan also said she wanted to make her position very clear on the Town Hall if elected Mayor. "There are few better examples of the need for new effective leadership at the council than the Wellington Town Hall.

“There are few buildings in Wellington that are more important to our built heritage than the Town Hall. I will ensure that work gets underway as an immediate priority to ensure the building is safe and remains a long term asset in our community.

“For several years now indecision has reigned. A range of options are being considered to make this project as affordable as possible most recently proposals that involve Victoria University and the NZ Symphony Orchestra. However it’s time to get on and make a decision.

“How the Town Hall project is funded is important but failure to act has, on the face of it, cost ratepayers tens of millions of dollars in extra costs with original estimates of around $46 million escalating closer to $80 million today.

“This part of the city has enormous potential. Rather than look at one piece at a time, I want to take a strategic approach over the whole Civic Precinct so that we get the best long term outcome for the city and ratepayers, and ensure that we support our music and arts appropriately for a Capital City."

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Note to Editors: Rather than the normal Bio, we provide, for your interest, answer to question 1 from Scoop Transport questions below. Full set of questions and answers can be found at http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=91616

1. In what ways do you think transport in Wellington will change over the next twenty years?
As a city we are going to be faced with two major transitions. One is demographic. This includes more people, more of them will be living in city centre and the population as a whole is aging. The second change – and the really exciting one – is that the nature of transport is going to evolve, and probably evolve quite quickly.
We’re already on the cusp of autonomous cars, and the impacts of climate change mean that we’re going to likely electrify much of the fleet, including buses and the freight sector. So the mix of vehicles on the roads could change quite radically – we may own fewer cars but use them more often for brief trips. Thanks to autonomous vehicles we may be able to fit far more of them in a given road space. They may well be much quieter than current cars, and some of the things we do with vehicles at the moment – like small high-value deliveries – may transition to other technologies, such as drones. And in an increasingly health-conscious world, many more people may opt for active modes like walking and cycling. Biking to work could be far more attractive if there’s far less exhaust pollution and safer roads.
We are moving fast to an electric fleet of cars, and I want to accelerate this trend by ensuring we have the best infrastructure for these vehicles. (I’ve recently announced a target of 75% of the council fleet to be electric by 2020). I commend NZ Bus for their plans to transition to a fully electric bus fleet – this is exactly the sort of solution Wellington needs, and everyone agrees we need those noisy and polluting diesel buses off our roads. I will work with the Regional Council wherever possible to help ensure that our bus fleet is 100% electric within 10 years. The environmental impacts will be significant and positive.
Buses are facing the same congestion as cars, and our road system is not as safe as it should be for cyclists and pedestrians. So I want to ensure Wellington has a first-rate transport network that relieves congestion on key corridors for both bus and vehicle users, and which safely separates cyclists and pedestrians wherever possible. The reality is that our topography makes this challenging from a practical point of view. We need to be pragmatic about the solutions
It’s apparent that we need plenty of flexibility in our transport network. My transport plans are designed to give us the adaptability in our key transport corridors that we’re going to need to thrive. We have physical constraints in Wellington, and our geography dictates many of our transport solutions – so we need to plan accordingly.

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