Three Wellington City councillors have walked out of a meeting and refused to vote on a plan to downsize a controversial roadworks project.
The Regulatory Processes Committee on Thursday voted to drop the number of raised pedestrian crossings on Thorndon Quay from five to two after Waka Kotahipulled its funding.
Council officers’ preferred option was to press on with the plan to build all five raised crossings and wear the more than $300,000 shortfall.
But committee chairperson Sarah Free floated an option to drop the number of crossings to balance safety with cost pressures.
During debate, councillor Ben McNulty warned against “picking and choosing” which to keep and which to remove, saying it was based on “reckons”, not evidence.
When it came time to vote on Free’s amendment, he walked out.
“I just feel fundamentally uncomfortable about playing role of traffic engineer here, so I’m going to leave the room,” McNulty said.
Councillors Diane Calvert and Nureddin Abdurahman followed. Free’s amendment passed.
Cyclists using the newly installed cycleway along Thorndon Quay. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“I don’t think you get paid to sulk and walk out of the room,” Free said after the vote.
A prior amendment from Calvert to bump the decision to a September meeting and seek more information from Waka Kotahi and council officers had narrowly failed.
Waka Kotahi wants the crossings, won’t pay for them
The crossings were part of a $45m project designed to make it safer and easier for people to use public transport, walk and cycle between the northern suburbs and the city centre.
Works began late last year. But last month, following direction from Transport Minister Simeon Brown, Waka Kotahi dropped all funding for raised crossings, leaving the council more than $312,500 short.
And it threw another spanner in the works – telling the council it still wanted the crossings to go ahead because it was the safest option. It just could not pay for them.
Those factors, as well as “ongoing feedback from stakeholders” prompted the council to reconsider the project, meeting agenda documents said.
Aside from officers’ preferred option to keep the crossings, others presented potential budget savings: $125,000 if council chose to remove one entire crossing at Gun City, and $625,000 if it chose to keep crossings with traffic signals, but not raise them (which would not meet Waka Kotahi’s safety guidelines).
The lack of funding from Waka Kotahi paired with its advice that the crossings should go ahead left councillors in an “incredibly difficult position”, Free said during debate.
The council’s transport and infrastructure manager, Brad Singh, told the committee officers had asked Waka Kotahi how to marry its funding decisions with its guidance to keep the crossings.
“They haven’t been able to adequately answer that,” he said.
“They’re telling us it’s the safest option, it’s best practice, but that they won’t fund it if we do it,” Singh said.
The Thorndon Quay project has attracted significant criticism, with some business owners saying they were losing cash and were worried the works would be ripped up eventually to fix ageing pipes.
Last month, the Court of Appeal found Wellington City Council erred in its decision-making process to change car parks on Thorndon Quay. But it did not order the ongoing roadworks be halted, or the carpark changes undone.
