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In a cloud of waffle the WCC put out a press release last week titled “Wellington’s council extends its ‘smart climate action plan,’ adds new initiatives.”

This is a great example of the kind of doublespeak press release we’ve come to know and love from the mayor and her Green coterie of councillors. It looks interesting, it looks like something is happening, but when you dig down into what it actually says, its either off the mark or just waffling on about how they are planning to plan.

“The Wellington City Council has today strengthened its response to climate change through the development of a more comprehensive and integrated Climate Change Action Plan.

At today’s Strategy and Policy Committee, council members unanimously agreed to extend successful measures of Wellington’s award-winning 2010 Action Plan for another two years and integrate new initiatives into the programme.”

Wait, 2010? It hasn’t been updated since then? But but but the mayor has been the portfolio owner of Climate Change all this time! What’s she been doing? It’s ok though, given that she hasn’t done anything about it for nearly her entire term, there must be something good coming. Right?

“Mayor Celia Wade-Brown said the report was necessary. “Cities rather than countries are taking the lead on climate change issues,” she said. “We need to take a climate change lens to all of Council’s activities and programmes.

“Our leadership will act as a catalyst for wider community and business action. Council can provide economies of scale and work closely with the business sector in particular, bringing costs down for items such as photo-voltaics and green building supplies and also encouraging better business cases for organisations to incorporate climate-friendly measures.”

OK. I’ll bite. What are you actually going to do. It looks like you are going to source some cheap solar power (that makes sense in Wellington. Said nobody. Ever.) and green timber, which, by the way, was how we got the leaky building crisis. Oh yes, back in the day, the Green Party managed to get mostly rid of untreated timber. Of course, untreated timber tends to rot…

Anyway, to translate that statement, it looks like we might get some cheap solar panels, which is great, because the cost of solarising your house or business is gigantic.

“Mayor Wade-Brown said that the comprehensive approach was timely. “The past week marked a deeply concerning climate milestone: Average daily atmospheric CO2 concentrations have exceeded 400 ppm for the first time in at least three million years. Global and local consequences include droughts, storms and real pressure on human livelihoods.

Ah. That’s important. Seriously. I want you to remember droughts and storms.

“The Council has taken steps to reduce emissions and prepare for the impacts of climate change. They include practical steps that appeal to households like increased funding for energy savings saw almost a thousand energy assessments and four hundred retrofits since August 2011. Our own social housing insulation has made a big difference too.”

This is blatant waffle. Can anyone translate this? I see no steps, let alone practical ones that our Mayor has made. I’m failing to see how energy assessments can slow down Climate Change, and social housing insulation? Four hundred houses? OK, she can have that. She’s seen four hundred houses with insulation added.

“Based on the best available information, as of 2010 the city’s emissions had roughly stabilised at 2001 levels. This shows we are on the path to a lower-carbon economy since both GDP and population have grown, by 29 percent and 20 percent respectively.

“Reaching the 2020 target of a 30 percent emission reduction below 2001 levels will require a further step change.”

Rubbish. I don’t believe we’ve stabilised it at all. You can’t tell me that we just “deeply concerning climate milestone” and we’ve been doing so brilliantly that we’ve managed not to increase our emissions in twelve years. It’s nice to see the stats thrown in there for GDP and population, over the same twelve years, it would be political suicide to put that in for the mayor’s current term.

Idling traffic is putting somewhere between 17,500 and 35,000 tonnes of C02 into the atmosphere each year as the mayor does nothing to get people moving around the city other than pointing at the bicycle.

“Additions to the 2013 Action Plan include the Smart Energy Capital initiative proposed in the city’s draft Annual Plan 2013/14, a refresh of the Wellington Transport Strategy, participation in the UN-Habitat City Resilience Profiling Programme and UNISDR Making Cities Resilient Campaign, and research partnerships and community engagement being undertaken through the Council’s Our Living City work programme.”

All hogwash and double-speak. What does this actually translate into? Planting a few trees on Taranaki Street according to the draft plan.

“We will work with our communities to find adaptive solutions to coastal erosion rather than impose limits in a top-down fashion,” said the Mayor.

What does that mean exactly? Are they actually going to do something about rising sea levels or not?

“Already the draft Smart Energy Capital initiative has found potential business partnerships to reduce emissions at business, school and households. Wellington must combine energy innovation and emission reductions with economic development through partnerships.

“The Council would provide matching funding of $250,000 per year for two years for priority energy initiatives,” said Mayor Wade-Brown

That’s it. $250,000 a year. The climate is going to hell in a handbasket and the mayor will match up to $250,000.

Updated greenhouse gas inventories and projections and a new stakeholder engagement process will help identify options for meeting the city’s climate change goals that also deliver other social, economic and environmental benefits.

“We have a bold vision for Wellington’s ongoing development as New Zealand’s Smart Capital, and smart climate action is integral to this,” said the Mayor.

Where is the bold vision? You’ve insulated four hundred houses (or “retrofitted them”), made claims that have no basis, and  will match up to $250,000 in … something.

Let’s look at what could be bold, what could be a vision:

• Recognising that the climate has actually changed, will change more, and getting on with sorting out the important things.
• Recognising that by not investing in roads, public transport, and other things to get people moving, it is having more of a negative impact on the climate than if you did. That by investing in good roads, traffic management, growing a public transport system that people actually want to use and is affordable, and investing in other options like cycleways (instead of just jabbering on about what a great idea they are), you’ll reduce the overall climate burden.
• Recognising that the current storm water and sewage system need help now. Because every time it rains here now we poison our seafood sources and flood dozens of buildings and houses. Because the excuse that “its a one in twenty year event” is a bullshit line when this happens half a dozen times in spring and autumn. Coming up with a plan to get that system ready for the increased rain burden would seem to be a good idea.
• Recognising that the city’s drinking water supply is under threat from continued droughts, which will increase in frequency, and doing something about it. Rather than wringing your hands and saying its a one in twenty year event.
• Realising that the rising sea-levels are going to cause real problems for vast sections of the city including the CBD up to Newtown and most of Eastern Suburbs and oh, doing something about it. Like planning for the day where you’re going to need to put the pumps back into Miramar to keep the water out.
• Understanding that even if we all stop farting tomorrow, that climate change will be haunting us for thousands of years to come and starting to adapt.

Jesus wept. Four hundred houses insulated and up to $250,000 matched with god only knows what criteria. There’s “finger in the dike” and then there’s “head up your arse.”

It amazes me that this mayor purports to be Green and can be so incredibly naive. I don’t consider myself an environmentalist by any stretch of the imagination and I can see that this blind stupidity and the act of doing nothing leaves us in a dangerous position.

Clearly it will take sewage flowing backwards out of people’s toilets, high tides lapping at the doors of the Miramar shops, and drinking water being delivered by trucks in summer before anyone does anything.

Is this the Mayor of Wellington?

A week ago, the Police effectively pink stickered a bunch of the buses that supply Wellington city’s public transport. That means that they were unsafe to operate. That means that the commuters have been put at risk by a company for god only knows how many months.

The last update, by the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) was nearly a week ago.

Given the impact of this on the residents of Wellington City, you’d have expected to see some reaction from the Mayor and councillors. What we have seen is nothing. Zero. Zip.

Is Celia and her coterie of councillors on holiday this week?

The entire public bus service of Wellington has suffered disruption due to the fact that their vehicles are unroadworthy. The most basic of things, the warrant that shows that the service is safe, has been breached. The commuters safety has been at risk for god only knows how long. Where is the outrage? Where are the questions? Where is the person who is accountable?

Woe is us! Will cry our mayor and her coterie. We buy this service from the GWRC it is not our fault! Don’t blame us! We have nothing to say! Call GWRC!

Bollocks.

I pay WCC for public transport and I pay the operator directly. What the WCC does with that money and who that service is bought from is utterly irrelevant. They chose the operator. They chose the service. They signed the contract. I pay them. They are responsible for my service.

I do not care a whit where that service comes from; Mr Popper and his Flying Penguins Hovercraft Service could be the outsource provider for all I care. In fact, Mr Popper could possibly provide a better service.

What I care about is that it is a good, and safe, service, and its not. I pay WCC for that. It’s their responsibility to do something about it on my behalf. And they aren’t doing a damn thing.

But why?

Part of it surely has to be the fact that if they can defer responsibility to the GWRC then they will, look at the water issues over the summer.

Is part of it the continued mad push to get more people on bicycles? This council is bicycle mad, this much is well known.

Here are a few questions for the mayor and her green coterie:

• How long were the public transport customers put at risk by the unsafe practices of NZ Bus?
• Would the mayor prefer we rode bicycles, or public transport?
• Why is public transport so very expensive in comparison to two people riding in a car to work?
• What is the WCC doing about other aspects of bus safety operation, such as the running of red lights in the central city?
• What is the WCC doing about the frequent complaints regarding the drivers of the buses?
• When is the contract with the GWRC and / or NZ Bus due for re-tender and why is the WCC not bringing this process up faster given the record of NZ Bus?
• How is the WCC, practically, going to improve the bus service over the next few years?

As much as a I loved the wombles as a child, they really weren’t up to running a city. “The Wombles are fictional pointy-nosed, furry creatures that live in burrows, where they aim to help the environment by collecting and recycling rubbish in creative ways.”

I have days where I am confused as to whether Celia is the Mayor or Great Uncle Bulgaria, the oldest and wisest of the Wimbledon Wombles and their leader. He terrifies the younger Wombles with his stern manner (and particularly his habit of glaring at them through two pairs of spectacles) but is actually very kind.

“Celia Wade-Brown (born 12 July 1956) is the 34th and current Mayor of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. She is the third woman to fill that role, replacing centre-right Kerry Prendergast. She is the second mayor of a major New Zealand city to be a member of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, after Dunedin’s Sukhi Turner, but she stood as an independent candidate. She defeated Prendergast by 176 votes in the single transferable vote election.” – Wikipedia

Last but not least in the current cluster of council is our mayor Celia Wade-Brown. Celia is responsible is portfolio leader for; Climate Change, Information and Communications Technology, Finance, and Emergency Management.

Let’s start with those four areas.

Climate Change has seen little or no progress over the last term. We have rising sea-levels that require better coastal management and planning that there is nothing apparent happening in that area. We have a sewage system that regularly dumps tens of thousands of liters of waste into our environment and a storm-water system that regularly floods while council wrings their hands and complains of twenty & fifty year events that seem to happen every six months. Nothing happening there to solve those issues. We have epic traffic issues that mean thousands of cars sit idling dumping tens of thousands of tonnes of C02 into the atmosphere each year. The climate is changing rapidly, but the city is not adapting to it, despite the reports of the WCC and GWRC of some years ago urging change.

Information and Communications Technology. Given this is my industry, I can pretty confidently say that absolutely nothing of any consequence has happened here. We should be working toward a Smart City and instead we are sitting our our hands watching the rest of the world pass us by with increased bandwidth, free wireless, and other innovative ICT solutions.

Finance. Wow. I don’t think I need to point this one out as pretty much a fail.

Emergency Management. Some kudos deserved for raising the profile of earthquakes, not that hard given Christchurch got knocked down, and for painting some lines in Island Bay.

Celia is our mayor, and as such, should be displaying a high-level of leadership and inclusiveness across the council proper, the councillors, the community, business, other local government, and central government.

But it’s not happening. The council in my opinion is well and truly divorced from the council proper, central government, the community, business, and worst of all, themselves. On one side of the council we have the green rot led by Celia Wade-Brown and on the other we have the old-guard who are trying to do something, anything. The track record of this mayor is not good.

Worse, she and her coterie seem to have their heads in the sand over the state of the city. Every time something negative appears in press, she appears to dismiss it and spin some kind of positive effect, this is wearing extremely thin, people aren’t stupid. If Kent Dunston is still her campaign manager and writing her responses, Celia should consider replacing him.

“Earlier this month, the Wellington Chamber of Commerce described the council as a “total shambles”.

“Whatever the causes of those bungles, ratepayers, who include a business community that contributes close to half the rates, have a right to expect strategic leadership, sound processes from the council table down, and accountability,” chamber chief executive Raewyn Bleakly wrote in a column for the Dominion Post. “Right now they are not getting it.”  - 3News

So the council is well and truly disconnected from the local business community.

“Since last December, the council has received criticism for:

The process by which former chief executive Garry Poole was replaced by Englishman Kevin Lavery.

It’s perceived flip-flopping on the Basin Reserve flyover. Even now, it’s difficult to know which way the council would vote if the matter arose again.

The excessive cost of the proposed temporary mayoral headquarters. It emerged $350,000 had been budgeted for that exercise, but after media publicity, the figure was cut by $200,000.

The fiasco over CityOps, in which another 27 jobs were lost, meaning more than 150 CityOps jobs, of a total of about 200, have been lost over the years. Ms Wade-Brown posed these questions, perhaps rhetorically: “How did that happen? Why were our hands not on the steering wheel?” There is a perception that the council is not on top of things, and that it is virtually dysfunctional.” – Dom Post

All embarrassing events that seem to indicate that the council is not a functioning unit with a strong leader.

You can find Celia Wade-Brown’s issues on vote.co.nz, I’m not going to list them all, but they read like a Green Party Manifesto and the city is starting to struggle under the experiment that a green bloc has brought to it’s governance.

1. Is the cycling Mayor of Wellington really an Independent?

2. Why did Green Party leaders, Russel Norman & Metiria Turei pay her an unexpected visit in early April?

3. Was the visit linked to Celia’s confession that she, and her ‘flat earth’ councillors, didn’t have ”our hands not on the steering wheel“ because they didn’t know about the 150 jobs axed in early April from WCC’s CityOperations division?

4. Or that the electric-cycling Mayor was unaware that the renovations of her temporary office were budgeted to cost $350,000?

5. How can Celia be so out of touch with reality?

6. Was Russel and Metiria’s visit just an excuse to sip green tea and organic biscuits?

7. Or did they tell Celia that her clumsy screw-ups could cost the Greens the 2014 General Election.

8. So what’s so Independent about a mayor that gets a visit like that? (Whale Oil Blog)

There certainly is a deep relationship between the Green Party and our Green councillors & mayor, we’ll never know exactly how deep it runs.

Politicians are master’s of re-writing history and its alway interesting to go back to older articles such as this one that the Dom Post ran in January of 2011 “Wade-Brown’s first 100 days”

CELIA WADE-BROWN’S TOP FIVE PRIORITIES

- Good transport choices, including enhancements to public transport.

- Economic development with emphasis on the digital economy and clean technologies.

- Improving community involvement – valuing volunteers, promoting council community facilities as a foundation for community engagement, engagement with a wider cross-section of the community.

- Continuing support for arts, biodiversity, sport and recreation.

- Keeping financial and other risks under control.

Whoops. I think we can tick the second last one, but as for the others…

In that article we saw light rail mooted (hasn’t happened), opposition to any roading that benefited cars (has happened), sue of her vote to block and so support pet projects & ideas, a perceived lack of transparency by the public over the council’s dealings, the beginning of the cracks between councillors, and a list of other telling signs.

“Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown is further alienating herself from the Government, with her plan to speak to a protest rally against asset sales.” – Newstalk ZB

A big problem for Wellington. Central Government already sees the Green led council as a problem, the rift has widened over the term to be reasonably substantial today, with even John Key expressing frustration that the government couldn’t do anything for Wellington. Probably in reference to the continued blocking of transport initiatives.

“WELLINGTON could save itself a truckload of money by getting rid of its mayor and 14 councillors and replacing them with teddy bears.Would the quality of governance be affected? Not a jot. The council bureaucrats would continue to run things just as they do now. The people’s elected representatives are obviously not in control at the Town Hall and it’s an elaborate charade to pretend that they are.” – Karl du Fresne

You know what, he’s not far wrong in my opinion.

When you look at the mayor’s record you’ll find that what was promised has not been delivered. The city if the worse for the lack of leadership across councillors, council proper, local business, other local government, and central government.

The real question is; will Wellington vote for more of the same?

Before I get roundly accused of focusing on all the problems with this council and not coming up with any ideas, I thought I’ve have a go at what I think needs to happen. Let’s get a couple of things straight here, I don’t ever want to run for council. It’s not in my nature to participate in bad politics and compromise myself into a bland version of the original. The second thing is that I live her, and have my whole life, some of the councillors can’t make that claim and don’t appear to be all that interested in the city itself, some seem to see this as a stepping stone into central government politics.

Let’s get another thing on record. With the exception of a couple of real dickheads I’ve run into ( overlord dinosaurs who have forgotten who pays their wages and what a customer is), I think that the Council proper does a good job. They look after me and give good service. I have no complaint with them.

So here are a few thoughts.

Roads

This is the elephant in the room that the greens just don’t want to see. From Ngauranga to the Airport and off that spine, traffic is becoming a major problem and impediment for the city. This is something that will take years to work through to just keep our head above water. Basically, from Ngauranga to Airport needs to be opened up into a free flowing set of roads. The bypass can be largely made more effective by two things. Cut and covering the roads under Taranaki Street and making a decision about the basin.

The basin is a mess. The changes of a year or so ago have made it worse. Like it or not, its a major hub for all city traffic and whether it is a flyover or tunnel, the traffic needs to be separated into East West and North South. Further investment over the years will have to be through the tunnel to Wellington Road, and through Newtown and over to Wellington Road as well.

Traffic has to get moving for a variety of reasons. As the public transport system continues to fail, the number of cars will increase. As the population increases, the number of cars will increase. Sitting in traffic jams for two business weeks a year, is awful for economic productivity. Worse, you are being poisoned while you sit there. The estimated tonnage of C02 released per year in traffic jams is as high as 35,000 tonnes. Any of you who travel in on a still morning will notice that the harbour these days has a regular, grey, poisonous pall of pollution hanging over it.

The reason that roads have not been invested in is because of the green voting bloc on the current council. The green view is to invest nothing that benefits cars and only look at alternate methods of transport. It’s backwards and it needs to stop. It’s costing us a lot of money in economic terms and its congestion is a massive polluter of the environment.

Cycling

How hard can this be. The cycling lane from Kilbernie to Oriental Bay proves that traffic and cyclists can co-exist together. While the council waxes lyrical about more bike lanes, they’re not actually creating them.

We need to create more. They don’t necessarily need to be on arterial routes as long as they allow cyclists to get in and out of the city. It’s not that hard.

Public Transport (Buses)

The current public transport system is old, suffers poor service, dirty, expensive, and has no redeeming features that make people want to use it. It is cheaper for me to drive with my wife into town every day, saves me hours a week, and is far more pleasant than being on a stuffed to the rafters bus with an aggressive driver stuck in traffic.

Metlink is the council run organisation that amalgamates a number of transport services across the region. The council effectively outsources public transport.

It’s time that contract for bus services went out for tender again. We’ve become locked into a dreary service that is inadequate and expensive. It’s time we put the service out to the market in an effort to revitalise it and get some competition going.

Airport

The airport is the gateway for tourism into the region and is a very strong factor in the local economy. Despite plans to expand the airport nothing has happened.

It’s time that all the local councils got their shit together and put some pressure on an asset they have a heavy investment in to expand. Expand doesn’t mean closing access roads. Expand doesn’t mean charging recklessly for services such as car parks. Expand doesn’t mean putting in competing local cafes. Expand means lengthening the airport proper, to the North, and getting on with it sooner rather than later.

Business

Small to medium business is the backbone of the country, and the city, and yet we have the lease diverse economy outside of Nelson. So we need more small to medium business and more diversification.

The only way that business is going to choose to come to, and invest in Wellington, is lower cost and ease of doing business. We need to understand how we can get rid of unnecessary red tape, reduce other costs to businesses coming here, potentially pay for the first year of their rates, and reduce other compliance costs. Coupled with that, we need to ensure that traffic flows and other infrastructure is in place.

One of those pieces of infrastructure is broadband. Right now, the network costs for a business are high across New Zealand and poor value for money in terms of speed. A cheaper, faster, more mobile network will allow people to reduce their reliance on having a physical location, such as a central office, and allow them to work from home or community locations. This will reduce the burden on roading and public transport as a spin off.

Council needs to lobby central government hard to get broadband rolled out properly. Most suburbs in Wellington don’t have a date for UFB to even be installed. In addition, council should consider investing directly in this infrastructure in much the same way that the movie industry has in eastern suburbs.

We need the innovator hub to apply their collaboration techniques for ALL local businesses. We need to facilitate bringing business together in an informal community to leverage off each other.

Central Government

We need to mend the relationship with central government. They are our biggest tenant and business. We need to make it attractive for them to stay. That means looking at concessions as per the business section above and investing in strong network backbones to reduce cost while making it easier to do business. It’s not acceptable to have a fence between us because of the blind arrogance of the left versus the right ideological bullshit debate.

The Environment

Whether or not you agree with Climate Change being as a result of humans, the sun, an alien influence, or the farts of bumblebees the reality is that its changing. We need to plan for more extremes in weather. Both dry and hot. We can’t keep sitting here saying “oh, its a once in a fifty year event” when it occurs every bloody year.

For a council that is reportedly deep green, there has been no investment in thinking about what it means for our water, our beaches, our sewage, and our storm water. It needs to start now.

The council proper

First, the damage that this set of councillors has done to the relationship with the council proper needs to be fixed. It’s not ok to have to warring parties trying to run council.

Better transparency around council decision making. And consultation for that matter. The Loomio experiment around Alcohol Reform was a good case study for this and should be rolled out for all consultation.

Understanding the opportunities and cost savings that All of Government services could have for the council. For example, the council still has its own ICT shop in a world where we have moved to Cloud and other shared services. This is an offering that government allows for now. There are many of them, not just related to ICT, so get on board and understand what savings and additional capability they could offer.

Don’t over-blow the earthquake work. There are differing opinions on what it needs to be. Sort it out once and for all. A wrong move here could cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars.

Consider the cost savings or reversing the outsource model for services. It may be cheaper, better, and faster to move the management of some services back in house.

If a project looks like a pig, smells like a pig, and bleeds cash like a wounded bank vault, kill it. Don’t throw good money after bad.

Community

Our sense of well-being and place comes from community. Both local to us and wider across the city. Promote more actively community activities and events both in the central city and in the suburbs.

A community center is seen by my generation as a group of old ladies sitting around knitting and grumpy old men who remember the good old days. We need to revitalise it and maximise our core strength as a city, diversity.

Super City

Where it makes sense, join services, but in general, don’t do it.

The Auckland experiment has generally seen rises in rates and a drop in services. We don’t need that.

Everything Else

Keep doing it. Its working ok.

Helene Ritchie rounds out the last of the current councillors. She lists herself as independent, however it is clear that her views are predominantly green. She holds the portfolio for the Natural Environment;

“This portfolio covers our coastline, beaches, parks and reserves. It includes the Town Belt, our botanic gardens, the Zoo, the Zealandia sanctuary and the huge areas of rural land inside the city boundaries. It is concerned with planning and planting, conservation, pest-plant control and other initiatives aimed at enhancing the city’s environment and biodiversity. It also deals with environmental grants, bequests and other community spending.”

On vote.co.nz she lists several issues and they all relate to Wellington Hospital and not a sign of anything that relates to the city.

I do note that one of her priorities is “trees”.

As for Wellington Hospital, the record stands for itself. Let’s just say that had I been in her position, I wouldn’t be listing it on my profile. But that is a different topic for a different day.

One of the things that I do have some admiration for is her role in establishing Wellington as Nuclear Free.

She has a passion for the Northern suburbs and of all the suburbs, it does appear that they have received the lion’s share of new initiatives and resource. This is commendable for the local ratepayer.

The Wellingtonian didn’t find her performance that good, ranking her second from bottom. I do think it is worth noting that her attendance was 99%, it shows commitment.

As for transport, well, she goes into the green bucket. Flyover bad. Bicycle good. Car bad. Walking good. Etc. “Helene Ritchie said the flyover was “preposterous, ridiculous.”“

For those of you who want to know more, the Capital Times did a great interview with Helene, which you can find here.

You have to admire the dedication.

Iona is a card carrying Green party member who represents the Lambton Ward, though “represents” may be too strong a word. On one side of the equation Iona cannot be faulted for making her views known. On the other side she represents the ideological green rot that has come to infect the WCC.

Iona is responsible for the Built Environment Portfolio, which is described as;

“Concerned with how and where Wellington develops, the promotion and protection of our built heritage, the design of our buildings and houses and our public spaces, including the waterfront. This important and often-contentious portfolio has an overview of the city’s interests and obligations under the Resource Management Act – most of which are outlined in our District Plan. The portfolio also covers building safety and standards – including the Council’s earthquake-prone buildings policy.”

Iona list issues for her as: Smart transport solutions, protecting our heritage, “greening” the economy, keeping the council honest about greenhouse targets, and putting Lambton first.

Iona is an avid supporter of a light rail option, possibly one of the most expensive of all transport options and is vehemently opposed to the flyover. She opposes any further building on the waterfront and waxes lyrical about how “we need a plan” to green our economy. Of particular interest to me was the commitment to the reduction of greenhouse gases by 80% over the next forty years.

This for me shows the danger of ideological green viewpoints that have the counter effect to what the proponent is pushing.

For example. Commuters in Wellington sit in traffic for an average 86 hours per year. I spent some time researching the environmental impact of traffic not moving as opposed to flowing freely.

It’s interesting, and I can provide the figures if you like, however using green calculators that are widely available, my estimates are that between 17,500 and 35,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide are dumped into the atmosphere as a result of traffic congestion every year in Wellington city. Basically, sitting in traffic is poisoning you and the planet.

Iona lists on the Wellington Green’s website her current projects as “promoting light rail, walking and cycling.” She is opposed to key aspects of the Ngauranga transport corridor, which in effect means she is opposed to the entire idea.

“Wellington City Councillor Iona Pannett has rubbished all of the proposed traffic solutions for the Basin Reserve as unworkable, expensive and environmentally unsustainable.”

Iona’s answer to criticism seems to be spent attacking the Dom Post.

Of most famous one of Iona’s spectacular gaffes was her attack on the War Memorial project in Wellington;

“Councillor Iona Pannett said the memorial, in Buckle St, would mark a “black day for Wellington” and that she did not support “glorifying war”.”

If nothing else, every ratepayer come voting day should remember those comments along with her track record of achieving, well, nothing.

Bryan Pepperell is a bit of a character. As you’ll see later on. He holds the portfolio for Walking, cycling, motorcycling, and safety;

“This portfolio addresses the transport networks of our City. It’s about improving and maintaining cycleways and the pedestrian network. This includes street lighting, footpath extensions, motorbike parking improvements, and fence and guard rail renewal. The portfolio also focuses on cycle and pedestrian safety in our city, such as speed limits, road safety education and promotion.”

You couldn’t ask for a more contentious portfolio. With buses seemingly maiming and killing every pedestrian that dares to walk into the street and speed limits that are popping up like rats, it can’t be easy to manage. Sadly, Bryan does not appear to have the power to make the average ratepayer either a) see common sense or b) take responsibility for their own safety.

Bryan is a prolific social media user with his most famous post being a discussion with muppets and himself on the recession.

Bryan fell on the side of the mayor when it came to the basin reserve flyover;

“Yet having backed the spending of a five-figure sum at a time of great financial restraint to have a last look at the alternatives, Mayor Celia Wade-Brown and councillors Stephanie Cook, Paul Eagle, Justin Lester, Iona Pannett, Bryan Pepperell and Helene Ritchie backed a motion that the council ignore its findings by not endorsing the flyover.”

Bryan has a range of views on a range of topics and his blog can be found here.

Despite his amusing antics, the Wellingtonian once said of him;

“At the other end of the beach, long- serving councillor Pepperell was voted the most ineffective on all levels. His 41.3 rating did not even merit a pass mark.

Panelists remarked that Pepperell had become a bit of a joke around the council table, with his colleagues not appearing to take him seriously.”

It is probably no wonder given some of his strange claims, such as Mossad being behind 911 and his skepticism about the authenticity of the moon landings.

Bryan lists a range of issues on vote.co.nz and the long detailed list shows that he has no problem putting out into the public arena what is is that he thinks.

I struggle not to like a man who puts himself out there, has a very strange set of views, and almost looks like a dead ringer for Gollum. He has a very high degree of entertainment value for the city.

He may be ineffective, but I like him, a bit like the way I like Winston Peters.

“John Francis Maclean Morrison, MNZM (born 27 August 1947 in Wellington) played 17 Tests and 18 One Day Internationals for New Zealand. A dogged batsman, he was also known for his dribbly left-arm spin bowling, including his ‘mystery’ delivery. – Wikipedia 

A solid performer, in my opinion, has probably been the most effective councillor that Wellington city has seen in a long time. In charge of the Sports and Events portfolio, John Morrison has proven time and again his worth.

“A wide-ranging portfolio that concerns itself with keeping Wellingtonians fit and active – and with maintaining the city’s reputation as the ‘Events Capital’. This portfolio concerns itself with swimming pools, Council recreation centres, marinas and the highly-contentious subject of sportsfields – including the ongoing debate over the introduction of more artificial pitches. The portfolio also deals with the Council’s interests in attracting large-scale events for the benefit of the city’s economy and reputation.”

His most recent success has been the AFL match at Westpac on ANZAC day with a Dom Post editorial heaping praise on the councillor and committee responsible;

“Morrison and sports administrator John Dow did a huge amount of work to bring it all together and have set out a blueprint for future matches.”

He has a fairly straight forward approach to meetings and in the debate surrounding the flyover was quoted as saying;

“There is really no sensible answer to this in that there could be droves of options the fact ofthe matter is we need an affordable achievable decision to address a very obvious problem — just yelling no,no no. all the time is pointless. We have been very concerned with this process but have negotiated a solution rather than tying ourselves to trees and yelling.”

There is little more really to be said about John. Wellington has a strong reputation as the events capital and has a host of engagements year on year including the Sevens, WoW, and Homegrown. More about John can be found on the www.vote.co.nz website.

“A reformed biochemist turned broadcaster Simon “Swampy” Marsh was one of a small group of business people responsible for launching the MoreFM group of radio stations.  Nine years ago he exchanged his 4am alarm clock and award winning breakfast show to run a successful radio advertising and marketing business with his partner Chrissie.”

Simon Marsh, otherwise known as “Swampy” is a newer councillor in the fold and independent, he represents the Eastern Ward and lives locally. Interestingly, his twitter profile lists him as both a cyclist and “petrol head”.

Simon lists issues as; councillors listening, traffic, upgrade of urban centres, a better business environment, and a safe city.

Nothing terribly exciting there, though I do note that “councillors listening” is a good issue that needs to be sorted out and Simon is the only person who has come up with it that I have read so far.

His website started with a hiss and a roar in 2011 and has seen little activity since. It does make a good benchmark then for what was promised at the time.

The three issues on the site are traffic to Eastern suburbs, a Smart Green Wellington (2040), and a better Wellington economy. The traffic and economy are going backwards as we know. I’m not saying that’s Simon’s fault, however both Leoni and Simon campaigned on improving traffic out to Easter Suburbs and it hasn’t improved at all.

Simon agreed with the basin flyover.

In an amusing twist, while the rest of the councillors were displaying outrage over not knowing how 27 jobs could be axed due to outsourcing, claiming no knowledge and blaming the council proper, Simon said “he felt well informed, and other councillors seemed not to have paid attention. ”All of a sudden, just recently, the apple fell out of Sleeping Beauty’s mouth and she wakes up – wow, look at what’s going on.”

I think that shows a degree of honesty on Simon’s part. Rather than run screaming from the issue blaming the council proper, Simon says, hey, I knew about it, how come you lot didn’t?

Simon has campaigned for and got Miramar an upgrade.

Indirectly Simon has had a go at Westpac Stadium pushing for at least one large concert a year. The great cake tin, or metal pariah, responded with the usual platitudes and waffle.

I think that Simon has done a reasonable job as a first time out councillor. A little more visibility would be good, however he does bring a refreshing dose of honest and “saying what you think” to a group that usually display neither of those traits.