Wellington’s Golden Mile paused shortly after news lands of another blowout
Thursday, 20 November 2025
The Wellington City Council has voted to pause the Golden Mile project after hearing the project has suffered yet another budget blowout.
The Golden Mile revamp started out as a $78m project in 2020 before a series of blowouts. It yesterday went from $160m to up to $220m.
Mayor Andrew Little ran for office on a promise to pause and review the project – notably the Courtenay Place section, which was to be done next – and used the first meeting of the triennium to put it to a vote.
It passed 12 votes to four with only Green councillors voting against.
The Golden Mile project was a complete overhaul of the retail precincts road and footpath from Courtenay Place to Lambton Quay with pedestrianisation at the heart of it. Businesses along the route have been vocal in their opposition, largely due to disruption and a lack of vehicle access to their businesses.
Little said the council was “financially constrained” and the cost risk of the project was growing. But the council had previously committed to responding to climate change and making the inner city more pedestrian friendly and easy to move around.
Council staff will now go away to review the cost and risks of the project. Those findings would then come back to the council to vote on whether to proceed with the Golden Mile and, if so, how.
Courtenay Place was scheduled as the first section of the work, that would eventually reach Parliament.
The vote passed with objection from the Green faction, with councillor Laurie Foon saying projects like this were being done around the world, and in New Zealand in Nelson and Dunedin.
Green councillor Geordie Rogers urged the council to flag the review and push on with the project.
“All the time we are waiting for more information people are leaving the city,” he said.
Green Rebecca Matthews said five years of delay had already added cost and complication and a review would just add more.
“Too many times we have just pressed pause when we should have pressed fast-forward,” she said.
Deputy mayor Ben McNulty said everyone wanted the Golden Mile approved but, in light of the blowout, it was unavoidable.
“Our first call, we want to go with another cost blowout?,” he asked those opposed to the review. “This sucks [but] we’re between a rock and a hard place.”
The unknown state of underground infrastructure was the major reason behind the latest cost blowout.
The council was also warned NZTA may pull funding if there were significant changes to the plan. NZTA was expected to pay about half the cost.
An amendment by councillor Tony Randle, to also pause work on the Harbour Quays bus lane and Dixon St cycleway while the Golden Mile review was done, failed.
Six councillors – Randle, Diane Calvert, Ray Chung, Andrea Compton, Karl Tiefenbacher and Nicola Young – voted for the amendment, with the remaining 10 against.