Hi all

As some of you may know, the Council’s Long Term Council Community Plan is now out for consultation. You now have until the 18th May to make a submission.

The document and associated information can be found at:

http://www.wellington.govt.nz/haveyoursay/publicinput/ltccp/2009ltccp.html

Some of you may have put in an initial submission. In order for your submission to be considered as part of councillors’ formal deliberations, you will need to re-submit your submission, with any additional points that you might like to make after you have seen the draft.

I would also strongly recommend that you make an oral submission. It is a really effective way of convincing councillors of your point of view.

There are a large number of issues for you to consider, some that you might think are important include:

• Real Rates will be set at 2.38% for 2009/2010, 5.48% for 2010/11, 3.67% for 2011/2012 and between 1-2% for the following years. Some people will pay more depending on the effect of the rating differential
• Funding is allocated for the Indoor Community Centre at Cobham. The Review recently conducted by John Anderson confirmed Cobham as the preferred site, but you may want to consider whether you want the centre funded now or in the future
• There will be cuts to the library budget, but not to core services or to the collection but things like security and marketing (following on from feedback from the initial stage of consultation)
• The Heritage grants will be reduced from $329,000 to $200,000 rather than being deleted all together following feedback from the public
• There is only new funding for one community centre – at Khandallah but we will continue to assess community needs in other parts of the city and will look at investing in other centres in subsequent years
• Small increases in user charges for things like rubbish bags, DVD books and audio books at the library as well as entry to recreation centres
• A new artificial turf next to Rugby League Park with five further from 2013 if this one proves successful
• Reducing opening hours at swimming pools where few people are using them and are looking at partnership arrangements to increase capacity
• Maintain our current network of tracks but will not invest further in them for 3 years
• A further loan to the Karori Sanctuary for contingencies ($480,000) on their Visitor Centre project and $300,000 to remunerate Trustees in return for tightened financial controls and a new governance structure.

We will also be consulting on how we collect and pay for our recycling. At the moment, the use of the green bins is the preferred option after strong feedback from the public that we shouldn’t get rid of them.

We have tried to trim the budget to keep rates under control rather than engaging in large scale cuts. We are all sensitive to the fact that we are now in a recession and that many Wellingtonians will be under some pressure and will have limited income to pay for more rates, but also that service cuts may make things more difficult for others. Tell us whether you think this is the correct way to go.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me. I will try to answer them myself or get one of the officers to do so.

Many thanks

Iona Pannett
Wellington City Councillor (Lambton Ward)

Our local Lambton Ward Councillors have been recognised for their hard work on behalf of the community in the latest edition of The Wellingtonian. The paper conducted a survey of the performance of the Wellington City Councillors at the midway point in their terms, and Deputy Mayor Ian McKinnon and Councillor Iona Pannett were amongst the four star performers around the Council table:

Mayor Kerry Prendergast, deputy mayor Ian McKinnon and Green Party councillors Celia Wade-Brown and Iona Pannett were widely regarded as accessible, effective, hard-working and pro-active.

From the many dealings local Mt Victoria residents have had with both Ian and Iona, on issues ranging from support for the creche to encouragement of the Crossways campaign to more mundane issues such as footpaths, we’d concur that both are very hard-working Councillors. So congratulations to both of them!

Crossways is running another superb film fundraiser, this time featuring one of Gaylene Preston’s acclaimed documentaries – War Stories Our Mothers Never Told Us. This compelling movie allows seven New Zealand women to talk about the impact of WWII on their lives and their families, and reveals the human impact of the war that swept the globe.

This is a great way of remembering the sacrifices of Anzac Day without the military pomp and ceremony.

This is a one-off screening at the Paramount Theatre in Courtenay Place, 4pm on Sunday 26 April. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for children, and can be purchased by e-mailing crossways@woosh.co.nz or phoning 384 – 4770. Limited door sales may also be available on the day.

All proceeds go to the Crossways Community Centre in Roxburgh Street.

Christchurch technology company Dove Electronics Ltd has made a very generous donation to the Mt Victoria community, providing high-quality video surveillance equipment to enable the Pirie Street bus tunnel to be monitored.

The video monitoring is part of the project agreed with the Council to improve safety in the bus tunnel after Hataitai resident Earl Krauskopf was run down by a hit-and-run driver in January. Earl’s story featured on TV One’s Close Up last week.

Kent Duston, local resident and long-time campaigner for better safety in the tunnel, was very grateful for the donation of the equipment. “This is an exceptionally generous act by Dove Electronics”, he said. “The video surveillance gear will enable illegal use of the tunnel to be monitored and recorded, and it should result in a drop in tunnel-running as we can begin systematically passing the details of offending vehicles to the Police.”

“Dove Electronics have a long history of corporate generosity”, said Kent. “Senior Dove staff saw the media coverage of the hit-and-run incident, then went out of their way to contact us and arrange the donation of this very high-quality equipment. Without their generosity, it’s unlikely the community would have been able to implement such an excellent solution.”

Kent said the details of camera placement were still being discussed with the Council, and he was hopeful that the monitoring would be able to be commenced within the next few weeks.

The Mt Victoria community would like to thank Dove Electronics for their support and assistance for this project.

Over on the Save The Basin Reserve site there’s a posting of the video shot on the recent Mt Victoria Historical Society heritage walk, hosted by local residents Joanne Newman and Alan Olliver.

Updated: Turns out we can also embed the video, so here it is:

Basin Reserve Historic Walk from MountVictoria on Vimeo.