mt victoria, wellington

Every year the Mt Victoria Residents Association runs an inorganic rubbish collection in the neighbourhood, in conjunction with the hard-working staff from the Wellington City Council.

Patrick McCombs and Sue Watt from the Mt Victoria Residents Association working the trucks at last year's inorganic rubbish collection.

This year the collection will be on Saturday 6 December. So collect up those broken bikes, rusting washing machines in the back shed and old bits of furniture, and get ready for MVRA and WCC staff to pick them up. A donation to the MVRA is expected for every item collected, and the funds go towards helping community activities.

And if you'd like to help on the day, send an email to mvra[at]mtvictoria.org.nz.

Around 80 people from all walks of life converged on the Greater Wellington Regional Council offices in Wakefield Street today to protest the Council's decision to ignore submitters over the Ngauranga to Airport Corridor Plan. A number of speakers - including Victoria University masters student Charlie Devenish, RAM candidate Grant Brookes, and Green MP Sue Kedgley - addressed the protesters. All noted that some 79% of submitters were opposed to the flyover at the Basin Reserve, but all had been ignored by Councillors. There was a widespread call for immediate investment in light rail, public transport, and safer biking and walking instead of more dead-end roading projects.

It was notable that neither Councillors nor Council Officers were prepared to speak to the gathered ratepayers - all claimed they were in "important meetings", which was met with derision by protesters.

A letter and a poster calling for the Ngauranga to Airport plan to be scrapped and for the resignation of Regional Transport Committee Chair Fran Wilde and Deputy Chair Peter Glensor was presented to junior Council staff. There was widespread sympathy for the secretary who had to receive the protesters, and many people felt she had been set up by the senior managers cowering behind their diaries.

There was much discussion at the protest about the need for a campaign to save the Basin Reserve from the Council and Fulton Hogan. Apparently a public meeting is being organised, and we will notify the community of a date as a soon as it is set.

The results of the Ngauranga to Airport Corridor Study are out, and as feared Mt Victoria is right in the firing line for the road-building frenzy. On practically every count, the submissions of residents were ignored - NZ Transport Agency, Greater Wellington Council and the WCC are all determined to destroy Paterson Street with a second tunnel, and deface the Basin Reserve with a flyover.

All at a time when traffic volumes are dropping.

With the onset of the planting season, some folks are exploring the idea of establishing a community garden in Mt Victoria:

"I am a resident of Mt Victoria. I am interested in getting a communtiy garden in place for Mt Victoria - the idea being to create community cohesion, sharing resources, education on sustainability/organic gardening, and for fun :)"

The long Labour weekend managed to bring out the usual spate of boy racers in Mt Victoria, with Sunday being a particularly busy day for cars with loud exhausts illegally running through the bus tunnel at the top of Pirie Street. At one point, a convoy of four cars was seen racing through to Hataitai, and the antics of one idiot were captured on camera:

The Mt Victoria Residents Association has received notice that the judicial review of the Resource Consent for the brothel at 103 Pirie Street will be heard by the High Court on Monday 2nd March 2009. A copy of the notice from the High Court is attached.

As part of the Meet the Candidates event last evening, the New Crossways Trust chair, Bill Southworth, officially opened the building with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Two of the stalwart members of the old Crossways management committee, Ralph and Margaret Pannett, did the honours of pronouncing the building opened, and were thanked by Bill for their enormous efforts over the years.

Labour candidate Grant Robertson (left) and MVRA President Jessica Closson talk to the crowd at last night's Wellington Central candidates meeting.

The Mt Victoria and Mt Cook communities ran a hugely entertaining Meet The Candidates meeting last night at the new Crossways community centre in Roxburgh Street. Ten candidates for the Wellington Central electorate informed and entertained a full house, punctuated with sloganeering, backchat and interjections, as well as considered policy and in-depth discussion of the issues facing New Zealand.

As the first public meeting for the new Crossways - ably chaired by Jessica Closson from the Mt Victoria Residents Association - it was a great way to welcome the neighbourhood to our new community facility. It was also a great way to meet a number of great people from Mt Cook Mobilised, who joined us to grill the candidates on local and national issues.

So now it's up to you - remember to vote on November 8, and if you're not yet enrolled, it's time to make the effort so you can have your say in how our country is governed!

The Mt Victoria candidates meeting for Wellington Central is happening on Thursday 16 October at the new Crossways Community Centre, 6 Roxburgh Street, commencing at 7:30pm. The candidates attending are:

Heather Roy - ACT
Richard Wallis - Alliance
Sue Kedgley - Greens
Grant Robertson - Labour
Stephen Franks - National
Vaughan Smith - United Future
Don Franks - Workers Party
Grant Brookes - RAM
Rebekah Clement - Kiwi Party

An apology has been received from the Libertarianz candidate Barnard Darnton.

The meetings is being chaired by Jessica Closson, President of the Mt Victoria Residents Association, and is being run in conjunction with Mt Cook Mobilized.

Regular visitors will have noticed that the Mt Victoria community website has been intermittently offline for the last few weeks. That's because we've been gradually upgrading our old static HTML publishing platform to Drupal, an open source content management system.