Three ways to start solving Hutt problems
National Party’s MP for Hutt South
For most of my life, Lower Hutt’s population has been pretty stable. When I was growing up in the Hutt in the 1990s, the city’s population was around 95,000 people. By 2013, it was still just 98,000 people. But Lower Hutt’s been on a growth tear recently, and the latest statistics show we’ve hit just under 109,000 people – over 10 per cent growth in the city in just a few years.
A growing city is a good thing; but only if infrastructure and housing supply keeps pace – and it hasn’t. Hutt commuters heading into town on State Highway 2 know that congestion is getting worse, and Petone residents like me are increasingly fed up with an Esplanade that slows to a crawl not just at peak times, like five years ago, but throughout most of the day. Just last week, a crane in the morning and a crash in the evening ensured near-chaos for basically the whole day.
A failure by both central government and local government to build or facilitate more housing in the city has resulted in huge house price increases. Between January 2015 and January 2020, the average house price in Lower Hutt increased from $373,000 to $651,000. With that has come out-ofcontrol rent rises, a record social housing wait list, homelessness, and the Government spending millions of dollars a year to house people in motels.
So here are a few ideas – some of them radical – to deal with our congestion and our housing problems.
First, let’s open up the north of Wainuiomata for housing, and build a second road into the area via Naenae. I’ve been saying this for a couple of years, but it’s now time for serious action.
About 2500 to 3000 houses could be built in north Wainuiomata, which would make a big contribution to addressing our housing shortage. A new road through to Naenae would be needed to connect the new suburb to the Hutt, and this would greatly improve Wainuiomata’s resilience.
Second, let’s get on with the Cross Valley Link and the Petone to Grenada Link Road. The Cross Valley Link has been talked about since at least the 1960s, and should have been built years ago. It will take pressure off the congested Esplanade, and make it easier for those living in the east to get across the city.
It needs to be built at the same time as Petone to Grenada, which will open up more land for housing, improve our resilience, and ease congestion from Petone to Nga¯ u¯ ranga. Petone to Grenada is expensive, but nobody really doubts we need it. Let’s get on with it.
Third, while we’re doing the new Melling interchange, let’s extend the Melling train line up to Kelson and Belmont. The line used to run there, and it can do so again. Both suburbs are growing (as are Avalon and Naenae across the river), and it will mean people don’t have to travel to Melling to jump on the train.
While we’re at it, let’s upgrade the Kennedy Good/Kelson intersection too, a major choke point and a big safety risk. The aim should be to eliminate traffic lights for through traffic on SH2. If we can do that by 2030, we’ll be doing well.
So that’s three ideas to get started on, and there are more I could add – a connector road from Stokes Valley across to Haywards, finally building the Eastern Bays Shared Path around the bays, plus more direct buses into Wellington, for example – but the above three are a good start.
The Government’s decision (albeit belated) to invest in Melling is great news, but there’s lots more to do.