OPINION

National has promised to kill Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) and the $7.4 billion transport plan appears to be on thin ice with the Government too, but there’s one project within it that should
be left alone.

The key criticism of LGWM is that it hasn’t got the city moving.

Eight years on, it has little to show for itself apart from a controversial pedestrian crossing, a few tweaks to inner-city intersections and a roundabout that’s currently being built.

But after so many years of hard slog, the troubled project has finally found consensus on something more transformational.

Waka Kotahi and Wellington City Council have just agreed on changes to the Golden Mile and approved $139.4 million worth of funding.

Private vehicles will be removed from Lambton Quay to Courtenay Place, buses will have priority, footpaths will be widened and there will be more green areas.

Early works are due to start in September (delayed to make way for the Fifa Women’s World Cup but still before the election).

It would be hypocritical for either National or the Government to rip up the one meaningful thing LGWM has achieved.

Something clearly needs to change on the Golden Mile. It looks tired and there are too many empty retail premises with “for lease” signs plastered across the front windows.

Businesses that have vehemently opposed the project shouldn’t see National’s announcement to scrap LGWM as new hope the Golden Mile changes will not go ahead.

National infrastructure spokesman Chris Bishop said the pedestrianisation plan has been met with significant opposition and he encouraged the council to think again.

But fundamentally it was for the council to sort out, Bishop said.

“The funding’s been agreed by both the council and the transport agency. It’s not clear to us exactly where things are at on that [contracts being signed] and we’re not a party that goes around just ripping up contracts that have already been agreed.”

Businesses have recently had false hope in the form of a notice of motion supported by seven city councillors.

The faction wanted the council to declare no confidence in LGWM and withdraw its funding agreement. Their bid got a lot of attention, generating some apprehension as to whether the Golden Mile would survive the politics at Wellington City Council.

While it’s a notable number of councillors opposing the plan, they never had the numbers for a majority. The Golden Mile was always going to get the green light.

Businesses should refocus their efforts on ensuring they get the necessary support to navigate the upcoming construction period.

LGWM is putting together a business support package, the details of which are expected to be revealed later this month.

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has also acknowledged previous communication with businesses about LGWM could have been better. She hopes to address that with a new business advisory group for future LGWM projects.

LGWM says the Golden Mile construction contractor must provide access to businesses during trading hours and ensure they can retrieve and receive deliveries.

Other measures include active dust suppression and keeping open communication with businesses to work with them when disruptive or noisy work is required.

If LGWM is truly at death’s door, the Golden Mile project could be seen through by Wellington City Council officials with the same provisions in place.

Wellington is at a junction between the old and the new. The next few years feel like a defining point in the changing face of the capital.

While some businesses have shut up shop on the Golden Mile, others are expanding. Corso Pastaria has gone into Willis Lane and is the sister restaurant of the successfully re-vamped Astoria in Midland Park.

Willis Lane is a new entertainment precinct that opened with a bang last week after tens of millions of dollars were poured into the new offering.

The same narrative is echoed in other parts of the Golden Mile. David Jones has closed but Calvin Klein and other well-known brands are moving in, a 130-year-old pharmacy is closing its doors but, across the road, the ground floor of a building has been fully leased with four food vendors and a retail brand opening.

Sometimes it’s hard to believe such a significant change to the CBD is actually going ahead in Wellington – a city that is so resistant to change that legal action was filed over that one pedestrian crossing LGWM can take credit for.

The Golden Mile isn’t even considered one of LGWM’s “transformational projects”: that moniker rests with mass rapid transit to the southern suburbs and a second Mt Victoria tunnel.

Overcoming opposition to the Golden Mile is child’s play in comparison to these.

But while Wellingtonians and politicians preoccupy themselves with their favourite pastime of debating transport plans, at least something is finally happening in the city.

• Senior Wellington journalist Georgina Campbell’s fortnightly column looks closely at issues in the capital.