City’s cycleway millions on the line
PLANS to spend almost $100 million on the capital’s cycleways have been revealed, but the brakes could go on that vision if several city councillors have their way.
Council staff have identified 150 kilometres of cycle lanes that could be built across 30 routes from the south coast right up to Tawa, at a total cost of $93m.
They believe they could fasttrack the building of about half of them within the next three years, if they can get their hands on a slice of a special $100m fund for urban cycleways promised by the Government before the last election.
However, that would require Wellington City Council to demonstrate its long-term city cycling strategy to Transport Minister Simon Bridges by April. The plan is almost ready to go. But with fast action needed to ensure it becomes reality, eight councillors have proposed changing the rules to place all cycleway decisions in the slow lane.
A special council meeting will be held tomorrow to debate whether all final decisions about cycleways should be made by the full council, rather than just its transport and urban development committee.
If the proposal succeeds, it could delay every single decision the council makes by three weeks, given the time it takes to refer those decisions up the chain.
A change to the council’s decision-making process could also push back construction of the first section of the Island Bay to City Cycleway, which was scheduled to begin next month.
Councillors Ray Ahipene-Mercer, Simon Marsh, Jo Coughlan, Paul Eagle, Mark Peck, Helene Ritchie, Simon Woolf and Nicola Young all signed a docu- ment calling for the rule change.
Coughlan told The Dominion Post last night they had been disappointed by the way the transport committee handled the Island Bay project, which divided community opinion and required nearly a year of consultation.
‘‘And [we’re] wanting to ensure that this situation doesn’t occur again.’’
Transport and urban development committee chairman Andy Foster said that was disappointing, as the council could not afford to dawdle.
‘‘If we don’t get on with it and make these decisions now, then we’ll miss out,’’ he said. ‘‘We have the ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.’’
Time was of the essence, because the Government had already started dishing out money from its urban cycleways fund, he said. The first $10m was allocated on Friday, with Wellington the only major city to miss out on a around for being a ‘do-nothing cut. council’ ... and some of those ‘‘There are some people who people are now councillors them-lambasted this council last time selves,’’ Foster said.
However, Woolf said it was worth taking a bit of extra time, even with government funding deadlines close, to ensure things were done right.
‘‘If it’s not done properly, the Government probably wouldn’t like that either.
‘‘We’ve got to show we provide enlightened decision-making ... and we have the right plans in place to follow through.’’
But Island Bay cycleway supporters Generation Zero thought the councillors’ move could prevent Wellington from securing government funding for cycling infrastructure, volunteer Alice Coppard said.
The group organised a ride of body-painted cyclists during the weekend to demonstrate their support for the southern route.
‘‘The risk is a minority of councillors want to use this as a smokescreen to halt action on the Island Bay cycleway,’’ she said.