Wellington Mayor Andy Foster laments setbacks as election promises remain unfulfilled

Friday, 15 May 2020

Wellington Mayor Andy Foster insists a pile of expired election pledges have not been forgotten but admits one of his flagship policies may not eventuate.

More than seven months on from Foster’s mayoral victory on the back of his promise to “get things done”, his unchecked list of pre-election pledges paints a starkly different picture.

Among the promises were expediting an extra Mt Victoria tunnel, putting an end to the Shelly Bay redevelopment controversy, restoring free Sunday parking, finalising a reopening plan for the earthquake-stricken central library, and releasing a blueprint to revamp the tired Civic Square precinct.

The promises were among more than 30 check boxes included in Foster's 150-day plan before the election, most of which have still not been met.

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And of the major ones, Foster admitted only the library and Civic Square proposals could be fully blamed on the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The rest, which have all comfortably missed Foster's self-imposed March 31 deadline, were due to a range of other underlying factors.

“It’s been a very challenging, and many times very publicly challenging, start,” Foster said.

“I had an electoral challenge [from ousted mayor Justin Lester], then we had water infrastructure issues, and then a global pandemic.

“I haven’t done some of the things I had planned to do, and I’ve done many things I had no intention of doing.”

Among the latter were putting together a pandemic response plan, and setting up a mayoral taskforce to look into Wellington’s water woes.

But Foster admitted some of his pledges - notably upending the Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) programme and resolving the long-running Shelly Bay dispute - were never on track to be achieved by the end of March.

Likewise, free Sunday parking did not even make it into the council’s Draft Annual Plan, and other projects such as a proposed housing development in Happy Valley were only due to be discussed in April.

In November, Foster met with Transport Minister Phil Twyford in a bid to bring forward construction of the extra Mt Victoria tunnel, which is scheduled to be completed sometime after 2029.

Twyford agreed to at least keep an open mind about the project’s timeline, but reiterated a mass transit system was the priority of the $6.4 billion LGWM programme.

Foster promised that plan would be renegotiated as part of a “new deal” for transport, along with fast-tracking a new road bypassing the Basin Reserve.

When pressed on why that had not happened, Foster said: “We are accelerating a whole range of elements of the LGWM programme. Ultimately that will be part of a new deal.”

One of those elements was releasing a proposed central city safer speeds package sooner than planned, Foster said.

The long-running legal stoush over the $500 million Shelly Bay redevelopment also shows no signs of letting up, with a group of Miramar businesses recently going to the Ombudsman over concerns about the council’s lack of transparency in granting resource consent.

Foster and most councillors are against the proposal, but developer Ian Cassels plans to push on with it.

Foster said there would have been information available by the end of March “which would have helped” had it not been for the coronavirus disruption.

He would not elaborate on what that meant, but conceded it did not mean a deal would have been struck.

'We will get there.'

Plans for the Civic Square redevelopment and central library were due to be tabled on March 25 but were put back because of the coronavirus response, Foster said.

An announcement on those projects was expected on May 22.

A number of proposals, such as the Happy Valley housing development and public feedback on the city-shaping spatial plan, were due to be discussed as part of the council’s Planning for Growth package, which had been delayed.

“A lot of key staff involved in that were taken out to do other things because of Covid.”

Internal problems had also not helped, with Foster battling various councillor factions and hiring a facilitator to iron out “problem behaviours”.

But some things have been ticked off his list, including reducing the forecast 2020-21 rates rise (from about 9 per cent to just over 5 per cent), and agreeing on plans for more priority bus lanes and council funding for the first two years of the LGWM programme.

ANDY FOSTER'S 150-DAY PLAN - NOT ACHIEVED

- Agree a 'new deal' for transport, fast-tracking extra Mt Victoria tunnel

- Restore Snapper and real-time information on Airport Flyer

- Restore free central city Sunday parking

- Consult on city-shaping spatial plan package

- Agree a way forward for Shelly Bay and Miramar Peninsula

- Agree a solution and opening date for central library

- Release draft proposal for Civic Square revamp

- Release draft climate change response action plan

- Consult on Happy Valley Park housing development

- Launch electric vehicle purchase scheme

- Implement waste reduction education programme

- Acquire central city park

- Establish urban development agency

- Receive venues review