Mid yearly update report from Regional Councillor Paul Bruce -
July 26th 2011

In this update:

• Successful change to STV electoral system for Regional Council
• Wellington Regional Strategy Review
• Wellington Community Wind Farm
• Major weather events
• Consultation on inner-city transport network

Successful change to STV electoral system for Regional Council!

I am delighted to report that a majority of regional councillors voted for a change to the single transferable vote (STV) system for the next GW local body election. The change to STV will bring GW into line with Wellington and Porirua City Councils, Kapiti District Council  and the District Health Board, leaving us with just one voting system. It will give vote/s greater value, allowing the candidates with the most support to win. See Greater Wellington’s report on the Electoral system for the 2013 triennial elections 11.379 (PDF) for more information.

Councils have the opportunity to change the electoral system every three years from first past the post (FPP) to STV where voters rank candidates in order of preference. However, the two Hutt Councils and the three Wairarpa District Councils have decided to remain with FPP.

It is also fantastic to see eight percent more use of public transport in the three months to April than the same time last year (40 million passengers annually!). There has also been a doubling of commuter cyclists over recent years.  I am working as your Regional Councillor to make these services more reliable and convenient and our roads safer for everybody.  Real time information is now rolling out. This August, the Wellington Bus review will be made available for comment, and it is my hope that we will be soon also having more evening and weekend bus services and greater frequency to places like Brooklyn Heights.

Next step is an integrated ticketing system, Bike Racks on buses, and Hifi on all services (as proposed by Gareth Hughes), not just on the airport flier. We believe that it is time to move public transport up a few grades to make it the premier transport mode of convenience!

Earlier this year, I gave presentations on the Environmental Impacts of a Kapiti Express Way to a Waikanae Hui, changes in the GW Transport Plan to Kilbirnie Residents Association and submissions together with Rational Transport Society to the EPA Board of Enquiry on the Freshwater Plan for Transmission Gully Highway.

On the 19th and 20th of August Gareth Hughes, Green MP will be holding the first ever national Smart Transport for NZ Conference in Wellington. This conference aims to bring together those of us who are working to promote diverse sustainable transport modes in New Zealand such as rail, bus, walking, cycling, rail freight, sea freight and coastal shipping. If you would like to register for this conference then you can do so online at

https://my.greens.org.nz/conferenceregistration

If you have any good news stories, suggestions or complaints, make sure you get in contact, and also send a copy to Metlink at www.metlink.org.nz .

Decrease in NZTA public transport funding assistance rate

I have supported the GW submission opposing the proposed changes in the (central government) transport funding assistance rate, highlighting the significant financial impact on local rates and lack of sound rationale in some of the detail.

The proposed changes amongst other things, remove demand management and behaviour change activities from the road safety category,  and could reduce support for essential studies such as the Wellington Public Transport Spine study and the introduction of electronic/integrated ticketing. The changes will lead to an additional 3% increase in Wellington Regional Council rates for the 2011/12 year. Attachment 2 (PDF)

Wellington Regional Strategy Review

The strategy was developed prior to 2007 to deliver certain economic development initiatives through a regionally funded development agency. The focus on export led growth was contentious at the time, and a review this year has bourn out the need to give greater support to the local economy, with a systematic measurement of outcomes achieved. I go along with this, and support further decisions being made on the activity within the LTP (Long Term Council Plan) 2012-22 process.

Toward 2040: Smart Green Wellington – Draft City Strategy

GW has written a submission to the WCC draft city strategy endorsing the overall aim to build resilience, economic and social, physical and environmental.

However, the submission points out that the success in achieving the vision and goals is dependant on players and factors outside Wellington city.  For example, 30,330 people commute to work to Wellington CBD on a daily basis. The city is at the same time dependent on the science and research sector, some of which is located outside the city. Associated with this, is the question of how these documents relate to the Wellington Regional Strategy (see above).

We also requested more detail on how transport plans might be integrated with existing and future land use patterns, to guide decision making and resource allocation for both GW and WCC. An excellent example of collaboration is the strong support from all Councils of the region for the construction next year of a cycle/walk way between Petone and Wellington in the new year as part of the Hutt Corridor Plan. NZTA has other priorities (new expressways etc) and has put in a contrary submission stating that timing for construction was premature and should be delayed until 2016/17.

These questions are of course related to the ongoing discussions around governance. Transport is already dealt with on a regional basis, but frustratingly overridden by Nationally Government most recently. There is clearly room for better collaboration on local issues such as the three waters (potage, storm water and sewage) and shared facilities. It is also very important to maintain that connection to place, which comes from having wards and Councils of a size that lends to easy and accessible Councillors.  Submissions to the Governance issues are being analysed, and further consultation is likely later this year.

Wellington Community Wind Farm

Since a public meeting in November 2010,  a steering group has been investigating how to progress sustainable energy projects in the Wellington region on a cooperative basis. Extensive research on community wind, such as options for governance and management, financial feasibility, assessment of wind resource date, along with the suitability of various legal and financial structures has been carried out. Our energy plan relates to a household consumer group to promote renewable energy on the consumers’ terms, and the opportunity to exploit the Long Gully site as a community-owned wind farm. We hope to be able to reveal further details about these exciting initiatives in the next few months.

We welcome as many supporters as we can who may be willing to be involved and possibly in the future to invest in community wind energy. We want to start raising some funds soon to help us towards developing our web presence and other materials in order to grow the consumer group, as well as supporting of the community generation umbrella group as outlined above. A website will be up shortly. Subscribe to our mailing list windywelly99@gmail.com and be kept up to date with progress and upcoming events.

Major weather events

Some of you will know that I am a weather forecaster with MetService as well as a Regional Councillor.  I hope you have been keeping warm in the recent cold outbreak.  Extreme weather events have been increasing globally, but with more heat waves than cold outbreaks. Earlier this year, May was a record warm month for NZ, and this unusual snow event was also preceded by quite mild weather. Dr Kevin Trenberth, a climate expert from NCAR expert, reported that more violent and frequent storms, once merely a prediction of climate models, are now a matter of observation. The presentation can be found at http://www.victoria.ac.nz/climate-change.

And if you want to catch up to local thinking on Biophysical Limits and their Policy Implications a ground breaking conference was held here in Wellington in June. The excellent presentations can be found at http://ips.ac.nz/events/previous_events-2011.html

Consultation on inner-city transport network

Everybody should have received a document in their mail box outlining the proposed basin reserve flyover, and widening of roads such as Ruahine Street and Wellington Road. There appeared to be a failure in the delivery system, so if you didn’t receive yours, please complain to frank.fernandez@nzta.govt.nz.

Submit your feedback on the NZTA website

The original Ngauranga to Airport Plan supported public transport measures and further reassessment before the building of new tunnels and new four to six lane roads. Traffic volumes are declining in light of high oil prices, and still the Government wants to spend all the money on new express ways with 100% subsidies. This is having the result of syphoning money away from the local authorities for safety measures, maintenance of local roads, public transport and new measures such as integrated ticketing.

Cabinet has just approved amendments to the Land Transport Management Act which Transport Minister Steven Joyce said would streamline the planning process and remove convoluted decision making and ambiguity. However, the Government is in fact giving more power to its own motorway builders at the expense of local communities and the economy. The Architecture Centre has launched the real alternative to the NZ Transport Agency’s disastrous plans for the Basin Reserve.

Check out the Save the Basin website and read more or make a submission on the Green Party website.

For more critique of Wellington City RoNs and alternatives, contact davidalaing@gmail.com and kent@mtvictoria.org.nz, and please consider making a submission before Friday 26th August, even if it is to just request that some of allocated funding be turned over to a high quality tram train extension through the city and traffic calming!

Best wishes

Cr Paul Bruce

For more information

Cr Paul Bruce, 021 02719370, 04 972 8699 Paul.Bruce@gw.govt.nz | Facebook

We look out the window over our Habour and marvel at the beauty of the changing skies. And some of these changes are now ominous for life on earth, with increasing frequency of unusual events and extremes.

Today, I would like to talk briefly about the future that faces us, and then about a choice we can make today, to enhance tomorrow’s life.

Each of us depends on the products and services provided by the earth’s ecosystems, ranging from forest to wetlands, from coral reefs to grasslands. Among the services these ecosystems provide, are water purification, pollination, carbon sequestration, flood control, and soil conservation. A four-year study of the world’s ecosystems by 1,360 scientists, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, reported that 15 of 24 primary ecosystem services are being degraded or pushed beyond their limits. For example, three quarters of oceanic fisheries, a major source of protein in the human diet, are being fished at. or beyond there limits, and many are headed toward collapse.

Climate change is one symptom of this crisis.

As a Meteorologist, I closely follow the arguments, as any scientist should, and there is an unprecedented amount of research being done, which is filling gaps in knowledge.  Certain trace gases in the atmosphere, act to trap energy that the Earth radiates to space.  The net amount of solar radiation has varied very little. However, the maximum solar energy that falls in any one spot, varies naturally over cycles ranging from 21,000, 26,000 and 41,000 years due to slow changes in the axis of rotation of the earth, variations in the elongation of the ellipse around the sun, and the precession of the earth’s axis of rotation, and are collectively referred to as Milankovitch cycles.  They bring about a slow change in global temperature, which has a feedback effect of increasing or decreasing trace greenhouse gases. Changes in greenhouse gas levels, alter the heat stored in the biosphere, triggering a much larger temperature change, and sending us into a warmer world or back to an ice age.

We have been blessed over the last 10,000 years with a usually stable climate with a human friendly mean temperature of 15 deg C. Then, about 150 years ago, humans began to burn the oil that was laid down under the crust 30 to 50 million years ago. This has now lead to an increase of about 30% in levels of green house gases over pre-industrial times.

Greenhouse gases include not only carbon dioxide, but the much more potent trace gases, Methane and nitric oxide, which have also increased due to agriculture activity and increased animal farming, disturbance of wetlands and exploration of fossil fuelsIn spite of the international recession, greenhouse gas emissions continue their relentless climb. We are, in fact, following along the worst-case scenario, with leading climate scientists warning that we are reaching tipping points, which can trigger abrupt climate change.

The biophysical warming signal shows up very clearly in the accelerated melting of the Greenland ice cap and the Arctic, the break up of ice shelves
along Western Antarctica sheet, the migration of plant and animal species and extreme events.
Water supply is also becoming constrained. Lowering water tables, the global retreat of mid latitude glaciers, and increasing severity of drought in major grain producing areas, portends food shortages.  And the pumping of underground water exceeds natural recharge in countries containing half the world’s people, leaving many without adequate water.

The stable sea level over the last 10,000 years, not only provided early humans with a high-protein marine food supply, but also made possible grain production in estuary and floodplain ecosystems.  At the warmest part of the last Interglacial 150,000 years ago, sea-level was about 6 metres higher than today.  Current warming will make the world hotter than the last interglacial within a few decades.

The disastrous outcome of Copenhagen was further proof that climate change is not the central issue in negotiations. For rich countries, the key issues in negotiations were finance, carbon markets, competitiveness of countries and corporations, business opportunities along with discussions about the political makeup of the US Senate. There was surprisingly little focus on effective solutions for reducing carbon emissions…. The choices we can make today!

When I was born in 1949, Homo sapiens were responsible for the burning of 10 million barrels of oil a day. Today, we choose to use 85 million a day, and we now take great risks, searching for oil 5 to 10 miles below sea level, witness the disaster in the Mexican Gulf! The legacy of oil we inherited from 30 to 50 million years ago will all be used within
the space of a bit over one century. And even though we have passed peak oil production, our continued use of fossil fuels over the next decade, will trigger major climate change and a collapse in our food production and eco-system.

At the same time, developing countries like China are following western life styles and moving to the western based high impact meat diet.

We need to despair and then turn our despair into action.

Lets review some of the impacts of animal farming on greenhouse emissions.

Half New Zealand’s emissions come from agriculture, and most of this is methane emitted by livestock. No techniques to sustainably reduce methane (CH4) emissions directly by ruminant livestock have yet been established.

Agricultural N2O nitrous oxide accounts for about one sixth of NZ’s CO2-equivalent emissions. It is a by-product of microbial degradation of animal excrement (mainly urine) and of nitrogen fertilisers in pasture soils. Recent innovations use “nitrification inhibitors” added to the fertiliser that slow down the N2O production.

An ICF study shows that three quarters of the potential that is economic to implement in the next few years is agricultural. However, the simple and most effective answer of moving away from animal farming is not yet taken seriously. Recent high prices for Dairy products have lead to a rush to Dairy Farming by New Zealand farmers, putting severe strain on water resources, especially in Canterbury.  It is ironic, that the areas converting to Dairy are also the areas where grains grow best, and it is more grains that the world really needs.

One billion people remain poor and hungry, and remaining global reserve stocks of grains are likely to disappear within a few years, due to continued population increases in developing countries, increasing drought in grain producing areas such as Australia and USA, and disappearing water aquifers.

Growing animals for food is also a very inefficient way of producing vegetable protein, using 7 to 10 times the water and energy to food crops. However, according to a report in World Watch Magazine by Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, the life cycle and supply chain of domesticated animals raised for food have also been vastly underestimated as a source of GHGs, and in fact account for at least half of all human-caused GHGs.

If this argument is right, it implies that replacing live-stock products with better alternatives would be the best strategy for reversing climate change. This approach, in fact, would have far more rapid effects on GHG emissions and their atmospheric concentration, and thus on the rate the climate is warming. The authors point out that livestock, like the automobile, are a human invention and convenience, not part of pre-human times, and a molecule of co2 exhaled by livestock is not more natural than one from a tail-pipe.  Today, estimates of cattle raised for human consumption every year, range from 20 to 50 billion head.  This is a sharp increase from a century ago.

Growth in markets for livestock products is greatest in developing countries, where rainforest normally stores at least 200 tons of carbon per hectare. Where forest is replaced by moderately degraded grassland, the tonnage of carbon stored per hectare is reduced to 8.  On average, each hectare of grazing land supports no more than one head of cattle, whose carbon content is a fraction of a ton. In comparison, over 200 tons of carbon per hectare may be released within a short time after forest and other vegetation are cut, burned, or chewed. From the soil beneath, another 200 tons per hectare may be released, with yet more GHGs from livestock respiration and excretions.

An earlier FAO report did not take into account annual GHG reductions from photosynthesis that are foregone by using 26 percent of land worldwide for grazing livestock and 33 percent of arable land for growing feed, rather than allowing it to regenerate forest. Leaving a significant amount of tropical land used for grazing livestock and growing feed to regenerate as forest, could potentially mitigate as much as half of all anthropogenic GHGs.

The capacity of greenhouse gases to trap heat in the atmosphere is described in terms of their global warming potential (GWP), which compares their warming potency to that of CO2 (with a GWP set at 1). The new widely accepted figure for the GWP of methane is 25 using a 100-year timeframe— but it is 72 using a 20-year timeframe, which is more appropriate because of both the large effect that methane reductions can have within 20 years and the serious climate disruption expected within 20 years if no significant reduction of GHGs is achieved. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change supports using a 20-year timeframe for methane.

Worldwatch report on a range of other aspects that all contribute to substantially higher amount of GHG attributable to livestock products vs alternatives. For example, farmed fish, liquid waste, disposal and creation of specialized packaging and medical treatment.  FAO estimates that global population will increase by another 35% by 2050, but in that same period, a doubling of livestock numbers.

Demand for oil will soon be impossible to meet, because of a terminal decline in production (the “peak oil” phenomenon). Petroleum’s price will spike so high as to bring about the collapse of many parts of today’s economy. Livestock products from factory farms may take an extra hit because every gram of biofuel from crops that can possibly be produced to replace conventional fuel likely will be produced—and thereby diverted from livestock—in efforts to stave off disaster.

The NZ Government is allowing further intensification of dairy farming, even allowing high country land to be turned into dairy farms. Landcare ecologist Bill Lee said moves to intensive farming practices over the past decade had “dramatically” wiped out native plants and animals. “The Canterbury Plains have probably suffered the highest level of biodiversity loss of any ecological region in New Zealand.” Fish species had suffered from pollution and loss of habitat from water extraction.

Now is the time to change.

Leaders in our food industry need to begin to replace livestock products with better alternatives now.

Food companies can produce and market alternatives to livestock products that taste similar, but are easier to cook, less expensive, and healthier.

Protein-rich legumes and grains are readily available alternatives, and these typically take one tenth of the energy to produce, and a lot less water.

The most important advantage of a plant based diet for each of us individually, is the ­huge health benefits, bearing in mind the high incidence of obesity and overweight conditions and chronic degenerative diseases linked to livestock products. Increased amount of plant, and fruit based daily consumption has lower possibilities of getting all types of cancer: breast, cervical, pancreatic, colon, bladder, stomach, mouth, larynx, esophagus, and lung.

The answers are life reaffirming.

Philosophers over the centuries have all celebrated the benefits of a meat free diet. I would like to share with you one story of a well-known New Zealander.

The man of the trees

Richard St. Barbe Baker, an influential English forest protection worker, moved to New Zealand in the late 1950s. Long before environmentalism was fashionable, Baker campaigned for forest conservation and vegetarianism, urging communities to save “Earth’s Green Mantle”. He pioneered practices now known as social forestry, encouraging local people to restore and safeguard their own forests.

In the 1920s he worked by the British Colonial Office in Kenya, where he encouraged the local Kikiyu  people to set up a tree protection society known as  Watu wa Miti. Members pledged to protect the native forest, plant native trees every year, and take care of trees everywhere. They devised a special secret handshake and a password, “Twahamwe,” meaning “All as one”.  Watu wa Miti flourished, eventually growing into  “Men of the Trees”, an international forest protection society with branches in many countries. It is now known as the International Tree Foundation.

In the late 1950s Baker moved to New Zealand to live with his second wife on a sheep station in the Southern Alps. Here he prepared organic compost for their vegetable garden, joined the New Zealand Vegetarian Society, wrote books, meditated, and gave lectures on tree planting. He lobbied the New Zealand authorities that forestry was more profitable than sheep farming. At the age of 74 he rode 1200 miles from the northernmost kauri tree in the country to the southernmost, near Invercargill.

In his autobiography, My trees, my life, he imagined a vegetarian future:

In some countries, such as the U.S.A., up to three-quarters of the land has been degraded to the use of growing crops to feed animals, which they kill to feed themselves. Surely a round-about way of getting food, when it is possible to get food for ourselves direct from the earth through fresh vegetables, fruit, and nut-bearing trees … I picture village communities of the future living in valleys protected by sheltering trees on the high ground. They will have fruit and nut orchard and live free from disease and enjoy leisure, liberty and justice for all, living with a sense of their one-ness with the earth, and with all living things.

Baker remained vegetarian until his death in 1982 at the age of 92.

And the way we live and eat matters not only for sustainability, but also for our safety, comfort and health

The quickest way to slash our greenhouse gas emissions on an individual and planetary scale, and the most effective means of preventing more environmental devastation on a major scale, is to reduce or eliminate meat and dairy consumption.

If you want to be safe, live close to where you work, travel by train, use a bicycle on car free routes … and become a vegetarian.

These are solutions that bring good friends and connectedness.

We do have ways to live more lightly on the earth that give joy and better health. Our end game can be a delightful, cradle-to-cradle, pollution free environment. Now is the time to wake up to community gardens, energy efficient buildings, the power of solar and a non-meat diet.

For more information

Contact Regional Councillor Paul Bruce
paul.bruce@greens.org.nz
phone: 04 9728699 cellphone:021 02719370

Download the presentation [1.4MB, PDF]

Collaborative communities

We face many challenges in the coming years; the limits of growth, climate change and peak everything, beginning with oil.

The media has been preoccupied with the financial collapse. The situation is much more complex than the collapse of the sub-prime market. Last year’s price of oil at $140 a barrel, was too high for non-producing countries, and lead to significant demand reduction. Demand is continuing to drop, even though the price is still less than half it was at its peak.

In its most recent report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts that the oil supply shortfall that they had previously predicted for 2010 will only be delayed a little by the recession.

Dr Faith Birol, the chief economist at the IEA in Paris, says “there is now a real risk of a crunch in the oil supply after next year, whenever demand picks up because not enough is being done to build up new supplies of oil to compensate for the rapid decline in existing fields.” The IEA estimates that the decline in oil production in existing fields is now running at 6.7% a year compared to the 3.75 decline it had estimated in 2007, which it now acknowledges to be wrong.

Oil availability then, is the first major restraint on growth. Water supply is also constrained, with lowering water tables, melting glaciers, and increasing severity of drought in major grain producing areas, portends food shortages. Pumping underground water exceeds natural recharge in countries containing half the world’s people, leaving many without adequate water. If growth resumed, most basic commodities would reach peak production within a few decades.

Sustainability and natural resilience

While the economy has grown exponentially, the earth’s natural capacities have not. This includes its ability to supply fresh water, forest products, and seafood. Humanity’s collective demands first surpassed the earth’s regenerative capacity around 1980.

Today, global demands on natural systems exceed their sustainable yield capacity by nearly 30 percent. We are meeting current demands by consuming the earth’s natural assets, setting the stage for decline and collapse. We must learn to live within our carbon footprint.

Each of us depends on the products and services provided by the earth’s ecosystems, ranging from forest to wetlands, from coral reefs to grasslands. Among the services these ecosystems provide are water purification, pollination, carbon sequestration, flood control, and soil conservation. A four-year study of the world’s ecosystems by 1,360 scientists, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, reported that 15 of 24 primary ecosystem services are being degraded or pushed beyond their limits. For example, three quarters of oceanic fisheries, a major source of protein in the human diet, are being fished at or beyond their limits, and many are headed toward collapse.

- Adapted from Chapter 1, “Entering a New World,” in Lester R. Brown, Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization

Consultation

Fellow Regional Councillors have remarked to me, “Paul, we have a different culture here. You need to take care!”

Our future is indeed determined by how we take care, what parameters we set, and how we collaborate. I have come to learn that Council officers write reports, and by and large Regional Councillors rubber stamp them. Consultation has involved a request for submissions, and then a perfunctory hearing.

However, the end game is a delightful, cradle to cradle, pollution free environment with clean water, air and soil… not business as usual.

I attended the first World Social Forum in Porte Alegre, Southern Brazil in 2001, as a Council for International Development representative.

At that time, Porte Alegre was the poster child for participatory democracy, and yes, they did increase participation, which lead to a significant surge in projects targeted to marginalised areas, and a reduction in poverty and increase in well being. The city council emphasised influence and deliberation as important for long lasting solutions. At the same time, Argentina, across the border to the south, suffered melt down, after years of military dictatorship, followed my IMF impositions. Unemployment was close to 50% with widespread poverty. This lead to a social revolution, with 5 changes of government. Worker’s co-operatives and community gardens now flourish, and Argentina has joined Hugo Chavez of Venezuelan’s Alba alliance, rather than following the dictates of the IMF and World Bank, and the neo-liberal free market mantras.

New Zealand is at a crossroads with the election of a National/Act Government. Do we move to a more collaborative system, or a centralised city state under control of the technocratics?

Pathways to Resilient Communities

Earlier this year, we held a Pathways to Resilient Community dialogue with about 150 Local government and community representatives, where we discussed the concept of resiliency and key vulnerabilities of the region.

Resilient communities workshops

These ideas have feed back into the Long term community plan.

Greater Wellington has undertaken to develop a Genuine Progress Index (GPI) to measure progress towards the four well beings (social, cultural, economic and environmental outcomes). A report by Aaron Packard explores the role for public participation in the assessment of the these indicators [Public Participation in the Community Outcomes Process and the Development of the Wellington Region Genuine Progress Indicators: Feb 09, unpublished].

“Any initiative must have influence to give a sense of meaning for participants…..One of the principal reasons offered for low levels of participant motivation was a perception that the public had little influence over agency decisions…. increasing influence helps to build trust, which in turn fosters participation”.

Deliberation creates an environment in which the exchange of perspectives arising from social difference constructively builds a common ground for community development. Deliberation fosters social learning, can be effective at dealing with conflict and can change people’s perspectives and preferences. Deliberation requires careful facilitation and planning”.

Effective deliberation needs good representation. Extra effort is required to ensure that frequently unheard groups are engaged, such as youth, indigenous peoples, disabled and migrant groups.

Inclusion or representativeness provides legitimacy to the outcomes of public participation. A study found that 60% of public participation processes were not-representative of the general public, leaving those that do not participate excluded from both the process and ownership.

New ways of hosting meetings and harvesting innovative ideas and concepts need to be found. A deliberative process, will bring clarity to where benefits and disadvantages lie, and where there needs to be some rebalancing.

Can we develop the grand vision that will take us into a post-carbon future?

Transport

GW plans and funds most public transport, and is now looking at when and how often services run, and how they connect with each other.

The system suffers from decades of neglect. Trolley bus and rail networks have been allowed to run down. There is a large amount of infra structure work that still has to be done, upgrading rail stations, the lines, signalling, stabling yards.

New trains have been purchased and will begin to come into service mid 2010.
Real time information displays will also be rolled out in 250 separate locations over the 12 months, and then when you next text for a departure time from your stop, it will be real time, not just a timetable. The next thing is integrated ticketing, and NZTA (Transport Agency) is investigating a system which will be operable over the whole country.

However, that is not the end of the matter. We need to design a network that will work for mums and dads, children and of course singles, through the weekend, during evenings, and on weekdays, and for the carriage of cycles. That means including destinations to sports fields, shopping centres, recreational spots such as Red Rocks…

And the active modes have to be supported. Gil Penalosa, the transport engineer who redesigned Bogota’s transport system, says that there are only 1 or 2% kamikaze cyclists who will mix it with car traffic. If you paint a white line on the road, that increases to 5%. Then if you construct a special cycle way, protected from the traffic by shrubs, then 30% will venture out.

There is space for this in Wellington, especially if we remove a few car parks, as is happening in some European countries. Options are presently being developed for a dedicated cycle/walk way between Petone and Nguaranga, and we hope this will be the foundation of a Great Harbour Way.

Question: What role should the private car play in a post carbon society?

Regional Water Strategy

There is a proposal before Greater Wellington to bring together the Three Waters, potable, storm water and sewage under a Committee containing both Iwi and GW Councillors.

The disruption of the small water cycle is accompanied by growing extremes in the weather, a gradual drop in groundwater reserves, more frequent flooding, longer periods of drought and an increase in the water shortage in the region.

Can a new Committee structure allow more collaborative conservation at the local level, rain water collection tanks, permeable surfaces, compost toilets, grey water recycling? Or do we further com-modify water, build dams.

GW will be assisting in financing elements of the New Green Deal, that allows you to repay loans through your rates, for clean heat and insulation upgrades, and this could be extended to rain water collection tanks.

Question: Are water meters an essential component of a conservation strategy?

New Urbanism

Now is the time to wake up to the power of solar, irresistible cities, community gardens, a great harbour way, energy efficient buildings, and make our region the best post-carbon place to be.

For more information

Contact Regional Councillor Paul Bruce
paul.bruce@greens.org.nz
phone: 04 9728699 cellphone:021 02719370

Where: St Anne’s Church Hall, Emmett Street, Newtown | click for map

A community market for all including fresh fruit and vegetables, crafts and entertainment. All welcome to be involved.

• Affordable fresh fruit and veges
• Bartering and exchange
• Local crafts
• Secondhand goodies
• Community
• Live music (sometimes)

Interested in having a stall? Phone Duncan – 0274578886 or Carly (04) 384 3186.

Buy, sell, swap – support each other and the local economy!

Read the press release on Scoop, 14 July 2009

The existence of the Wellington Trust and its key service, Wellington Community Net is now under threat from reduced WCC funding because some staff and councillors don’t understand its value.

Wellington Community Net offers a very valuable service.

There are 570 separate websites, not pages in a directory but complete sites. Some host multiple community groups like the Wadestown one.

Facebook is no substitute for a website with full information and the ability for low-skilled users to update them. Blogs are only one way of telling people what you think. With Community Net sites, groups can manage sports draws, plant information, and multi-language support.

Sign the e-petition to continue funding to Wellington Community Net:

Include Wellington Community Net and Community ICT Funding In The Draft LTCCP for 2009-2019

Accessible to many people

Those familiar with setting up websites have little idea how difficult it is for a group without technical knowledge to do this. Wellington Community Net allows groups with few IT skills to

• put up any sort of database
• use email forwarding
• use a free WELLINGTON domain name

WCN is also low-cost, which is vital for groups who are not incorporated and have no funds. Planting groups just want to showcase their work and attract volunteers really easily, not fund raise for a website!  For some groups finding funds for web-hosting would mean other activities are curtailed.

Funding from 2020 Trust

The 2020 Trust was set up in 1996 to provide support for the Information and Communications Technology needs of Wellington people – particularly community groups and disadvantaged people. I was its founding chair and then stayed on as a trustee for a number of years.

It’s now a national organisation running e-Day, Computers in Homes and other projects. There’s also the local Wellington Trust, now known as Wellington ICT. It’s done some terrific projects, several of which I’ve worked on in a voluntary basis such as Whanau Link for giving Internet access to hospice patients and their families.

Funding WCN provides a good platform for the Trust to support future IT requirements for not-for-profit groups such as what Internet plan, what membership software, email trouble shooting and so do on. Some groups have this expertise available within their membership but plenty just don’t – or not at the times its needed! It can be particularly difficult for people with English as a second language.

Groups using WCN say…

Further points that have been emphasised in emails from groups that use WCN:

• Other sites are used by groups who are not incorporated and have no funds.
• Planting groups just want to showcase their work and attract volunteers really easily, not fund raise for a website!
• For some groups finding funds for web-hosting would mean other activities were curtailed.

Websites are not the same as directory pages

Some of the officer/councillor comments seemed to equate web pages in a directory with a full website service including databases, mailing lists and so forth is available.

The existence of Wellington ICT and WCN is a base upon which further services such as e-rider and community networking conferences can be built up on.

Political boundaries don’t match neatly with community interests and regional replication would be a waste of resources.

Most comments I’ve received recommend WCN as a necessary part of an intelligent city’s community service infrastructure that other cities should emulate.

What you can do

Sign the e-petition:

Include Wellington Community Net and Community ICT Funding In The Draft LTCCP for 2009-2019

Links

• 570 community websites under threat – Scoop story
• 2020 Communications Trust

New gardens

I’ve been a supporter of Innermost Gardens for a long time in their quest to find space. A small site in Newtown is happening now and a more substantial Council site is on the cards.

Some groups like Common Ground are working on other spaces such as the grounds of the Home of Compassion.  The Brooklyn Transition Towns movement has matched up willing gardeners with people who have gardens but not time or energy to garden.

The Sustainability Trust supported an online network to be created, the  Wellington Community Gardens Network on Wellington Community Net. Such connections abound in Wellington!

Operation Green Thumb has been successful for several years with public plots,  as have City Housing tenant groups.

Benefits of community gardens

Community gardens help people

• build communities
• save money on food
• get outdoors to soothe mind and body
• become more independent from the global food chain

Community hui

On May 25th 2009, Wellington City Council hosted a great hui of community garden groups – existing gardeners and wanna-bees. There was support from social agencies and Parks & Gardens staff too. If you missed the event or have a piece of Council land in mind, contact Celia to be kept in touch.

Not every spot is suitable – soil, existing ecology, neighbours, hazardous trees etc. all have to be considered.

We are committed to making the process easier and ending up with MORE food grown by the community, for the community!

For more information

Contact Mayor Celia Wade-Brown
mayor@wcc.govt.nz
phone: (0064 4) 801 3102