Wellington $7.7m sexual violence promise spent $3.6m on toilets

Saturday, 3 August 2024

The $7.7m Pōneke Promise city safety initiative spun off a $3.6m public toilet project. The architecturally designed toilet, artist’s impression above, will be a “stand out” building, says the Wellington City Council

Wellington’s $7.7 million Pōneke Promise safety initiative ended up being spent mostly on street improvements and spun off an architecturally designed $2.25m toilet block.

The Pōneke Promise was born out of sexual violence concerns in the central city but grew into a multi-agency drive to improve city safety in Wellington more generally.

Now, after an almost three-month wait the Wellington City Council has released, under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, a breakdown of how the $7.7m was spent.

One of the parklets on Dixon St which took out car parks in the name of city safety.

Of that amount, $5m had been spent, or was budgeted, on the street improvements at Te Aro Park, Dixon St and some nearby lanes.

On Dixon St those changes include removing car parks and building platforms for outdoor seating at cafes and restaurants.

While the council took three months to respond to an official information request, claiming that $2.6m of the Pōneke Promise fund was going on new toilets, questions from The Post this week saw the council backtrack.

Now, according to council spokesperson Victoria Barton-Chapple, the toilets actually cost $3.6m. Though getting the Te Aro Park toilets demolished was due to safety concerns, their replacement cost was coming from a different council budget, she said.

Barton-Chapple said the planned toilets on Inglewood Place, around the corner from Te Aro Park, would have five cubicles plus changing facilities.

Ella Lamont, left, and Sophia Harrison created a survey around sexual harassment and assault in Wellington in 2021 in what became the spark behind the Pōneke Promise.

They would cost $2.25m to build with the rest of the $3.6m spent on demolishing the Te Aro Park toilets and putting in a temporary replacement on Victoria St.

“The [Inglewood] toilet has been architecturally designed and includes lighting and cladding to make it a stand out building due to its prominent location in the central city,” she said.

Hundreds of people gathered on Courtenay Place in Wellington in 2021 to rally against sexual violence in the city.

In 2021, Victoria University students Ella Lamont and and Sophia Harrison, surveyed Wellingtonians around city safety and received more than 2660 responses, including hundreds of personal accounts of sexual harassment, assault, drink spiking and rape.

And soon after that about 500 people rallied in central Wellington against sexual violence. They called on the Wellington City Council, Government and hospitality to change the culture of sexual violence.

They sought an increase in safety measures and a revamp of the central city, more funding for sexual harm response and prevention groups and a strategy to prevent violence that hospitality businesses would need to sign up to. Lamont and Harrison read a poem at the rally. The Pōneke Promise was launched soon after.

Wellington City Councillor Tamatha Paul, now Wellington Central MP, gave an emotional speech at Courtenay Place in Wellingtonin 2021 at a rally against sexual violence in the city.

Lamont said the Te Aro Park toilets had not been identified as an “area of particular concern” in the survey. Her vision had included some street improvements along Courtenay Place, where wider footpaths would have created better visibility.

The Pōneke Promise vision of 2021 — “a Pōneke free of sexual violence (and the fear of harm), where everyone is free to be who they want, go about their lives without worry, and whose space is filled with joy“ — had not been realised, she said.

“But the conversation even being started is getting us in the right direction.” It did help with funding to the likes of Wellington HELP or Wellington Rape Crisis, she said.

The Pōneke Promise started from concerns about sexual violence but grew to a general city safety programme (File photo)

Wellington Central MP Tamatha Paul, then a Wellington City councillor, was at the 2021 rally. She said the Pōneke Promise could be susceptible to being swallowed up by more-general safety initiatives.

But the 2021 rally had three asks, which the Pōneke Promise had tried to address: urban design improvements, funding organisations that responded to or helped prevent sexual violence, and working with hospitality to help identify and prevent issues.

Te Aro Park was the “epicentre of harm in the central city”. Removing car parks and creating parklets — a wooden board walk and seating area over former car parks — increased visibility and reduced chaos, she said.

Mayor Tory Whanau said the $7.7m had been well spent and city safety work was ongoing, including a “reinvigorated” city safety plan and work to make the city more attractive and safer.

The Pōneke Promise had seen venue staff trained in preventing sexual harassment on premises, sexual violence prevention training of students, and collaborating on the More than a Yes campaign promoting positive sexual consent.

There was now more lighting in drinking hot spots, more cleaning, and more money for Take 10, she said.

The council official information showed $1.4m of the $7.7m was spent on rental and fit out of Te Pokapū Hapori community centre on Manners St, while $1.2m had been spent on “harm reduction initiatives”.