A silent vigil for little Beau will be held on 16 December, 
the anniversary of his killing by council. 
Cr. David Scott is among the supporters of this event.

regards
Kerry Bolton

At the last meeting for the year of the Waikanae Community Board on Tuesday evening, the council gave a presentation on ideas for an additional cycleway to the existing one on both sides of the Waikanae River that will go through the streets, with Ngaio Road, Russell Reserve, Park Avenue and then Te Moana Road being the route.

Ngaio Road is moderately wide, while Park Avenue and Te Moana Road are wide enough for there not to be too much involved in creating it; but there are problems with squeezes at intersections, particularly where Park Avenue meets Ngarara Road and where Te Moana meets Waimea Road.  They mean that the cycleway would be a broken route than a continuous one.

A firm proposal should appear next year.

The KCDC’s present cycling brochure is here (pdf)

An article on the front page of today’s Dominion Post and online here says that an Horizons survey of 1500 people across the Wellington region shows that frustration with cars as a means of transport has resulted in increased use of buses and trains.

“When asked for their impressions of what it was like getting around the region by car, the number of people who considered the road network ‘reliable’ dropped significantly from 64 per cent to 40 per cent.”

“However, Paul Swain, the [regional] council’s Sustainable Transport Committee chairman, said that while the survey results were interesting, he did not think the age of the car was over just yet.

“Other measures, such as fuel consumption, suggested car use was flattening off rather than declining, and other reports suggested almost 12,000 more cars could be entering Wellington during the morning rush once new motorways north of the capital – including Transmission Gully –  were up and running, he said.”

Well, that is the present central government’s mindset, and in fact it’s traditional for the National Party — former National Party cabinet ministers Tony Friedlander and Ken Shirley went on to be vocal lobbyists for the trucking industry — and they want roads that will increase the dominance of trucks over trains.

But where are these 12,000 extra cars going to be parked in Wellington?  In more multi-story parking buildings?

The SPCA is number one, but we also contribute to World Animal Protection, the NZ website.  The pic above shows part of their gift catalogue, which is also online.

North at the top. This is not a final design, but it will be fairly close. The number of spaces for cars has been reduced to about 230.

One obvious problem is going to be traffic circulation as there are only three entrance/exit points and two of these will only allow left turns going in or out.  The Marae Lane entrance/exit will allow dual direction, but when peak hour trains arrive and the passengers go to or from their cars, things could get rather jammed.

The council plans to buy 5 large specimen trees to supplement the existing trees around the periphery, including the large heritage-listed pohutukawa.

Space has been left for the mobile barber shop which is popular with some locals — this is the little rectangle near the centre-top.

We’re pleased to note that security will be provided by CCTV cameras.