Diane Calvert for Mayor
13 Aug

Diane Calvert Standing for Mayor of Wellington city

Media Release – Diane Calvert Standing for Mayor of Wellington city

Wellington City Councillor for Wharangi/Onslow-Western Ward Diane Calvert has announced her candidacy for the upcoming Wellington City Council mayoralty.

“We know our city is special; the home of the arts, a creative capital, a loveable city that is remarkable. I believe in Wellingtonians, what we can do and how we can do it, but our city has fallen into a rut over the last decade.

“Our city needs real leadership that’s for Wellingtonians and not just the Beehive. Bold leadership built Wellington, and it’s time for bold leadership again.” said Calvert.

“Wellington’s population is growing and we need to support this growth with a stronger economy and integrated solutions in housing, transport and infrastructure for all our communities.

“Our leaders have to be courageous now, we can’t keep accumulating debt expecting our children to pay the bill”.

Calvert continued “Let’s Get Wellington Moving” programme will not deliver what Wellingtonians need now nor in 20-years when it might be finished. That’s 20-years too late. Buses should be the top priority, not an afterthought. We can’t afford a programme that isn’t fit for service now and certainly won’t be fit for our city’s future needs.”

“Our leaders have to be honest, they can’t afford to keep making promises they won’t live up to.”

“Wellingtonians have had enough of overspending and secret deals. We want honesty, transparency, and accountability in decision making.

“Wellingtonians have had enough of promises without progress.”

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30 Jul

Local councillors share public’s concerns with Parliament’s Transport & Infrastructure committee

Cllrs Calvert & Woolf presenting to committee

Wellington city councillors Diane Calvert and Simon Woolf were pleased to be able to provide direct customer feedback at the Transport and Infrastructure committee at Parliament today (Thurs 25th July 2019). (you can view the recorded meeting here -councillors presentation is at approx. 51 minutes)

Councillors Woolf and Calvert recently released the results of an online survey they ran seeking feedback on the current state of the bus service and shared those results today with the committee.

Key findings from the survey of 468 respondents are;

  • 91% of respondents say their experience of the new bus service is worse than before July 2018
  • 72% of respondents are considering alternative options to get to town with the majority considering car
  • 46% of respondents say they are using the bus less than before July 2018

Councillor Woolf says “For some time we have been actively advocating for our city’s residents and wanted an independent snapshot in time to support our ongoing concerns about the bus service provided by Greater Wellington Regional Council. The survey results clearly show that there are still significant issues being faced by bus patrons These issues are slowly eroding both the social and economic fabric of our city and impacting of the health and well-being of our citizens.”

Councillor Calvert says “What we need as an additional early improvement is a coordinated bus transport improvement plan, covering the whole city, to be delivered over the next 10 years while investment and delivery for mass transit is completed. The plan would not only consider additional routes, capacity, bus types and priority lanes but also look at better fares to attract more patrons.”

Councillors Woolf and Calvert believe further and broader improvements to our bus service will provide speedier and greater value to ratepayers, have a strong impact on reducing cars on the road and get us quicker to our carbon-neutral targets. They say improvements can still carry on in parallel with other work on new roads and mass transit routes but at least people will still be able to get to work, school and home when they want.

Councillors Calvert and Woolf are advocating for a governance group to be formed by representatives of New Zealand Transport Agency, Greater Wellington Regional Council and Wellington City Council (similar to the Lets Bet Welly Moving group) to govern the current bus service improvements in the city. Calvert says “this means that there will be a fairer and more equitable representation and accountability of those contributing to the bus service including taxpayer funding, ratepayer funding, infrastructure and service delivery.”

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23 Jul

The Colour Aubergine

 

When I stood for Council three years ago, I was not affiliated (and still not) to any central govt political party.  In fact politics was not a focus of mine other than general interest.

After being on the receiving end of Council’s decisions impacting my local community, I stood for Wellington City Council to provide a higher standard of governance (to ensure we make more robust decisions) and to improve how our Council listens to and engages with local communities so we make better & more inclusive decisions. Becoming a local government politician has enabled me to achieve just that.

My loyalty is first and foremost to the city, its residents and its future. I don’t need to adhere to any political party to achieve this but do share many similar values to the blues, reds and greens. This helps in being able to work collaboratively even if, from time to time, you have opposing views on what needs to be done. (more…)

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19 Jul

Our city’s bus service needs more work

A news release from myself and Simon Woolf

Wellington city councillors Diane Calvert and Simon Woolf recently ran their own online survey of bus patrons focusing on the Karori service (commuter peak period).  The survey was conducted in May over a three week period and there were 468 respondents with 49% from Karori. Results were collected and analysed independently. (more…)

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13 Feb

Feb 2019 – Standing for Our City

Joint media release from Diane Calvert and Simon Woolf

Wellington city councillors Diane Calvert and Simon Woolf have formally announced their respective intentions to seek re-election to Wellington City Council at this year’s local government elections.

Simon Woolf, a city councillor for nearly six years, says “Over the past three years, our Council has made good progress on setting out a solid framework to take the city into the future. The improved collegial and collaborative nature and balanced decisions of the Council has ensured most decisions are made by an overwhelming majority. It is a priority for us that this balanced approach continues for the growth of our city”.

Diane Calvert, who is completing her first term of three years, says “It’s a privilege to be able to serve the city and its people. Simon and I have developed a strong working relationship through joint projects in our ward and sharing common views and values across city wide projects. We have made good local progress for our ward and local communities with projects such as the Karori Town Centre placemaking, funding for Khandallah Summer Pool upgrade, along with improving how our city engages. There is still much more to do and we are looking forward to being able to continue to make a positive difference to our local areas and the city as a whole”. (more…)

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18 May

May 2018 – Wellingtonians having a say – will it make a difference?

Submissions on Wellington City Council’s draft 10 year plan have just closed. We doubled the number from last time, plus we heard from a lot more younger Wellingtonians. Improving community engagement especially across all age groups doesn’t occur by chance nor by a few more social media posts. It takes a focus, a plan and resources, the opportunity to do things differently and support from across the organisation. The team at Wellington City Council have certainly delivered on this, judging by the significant increase in submissions. But will it make a difference? (more…)

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29 Sep

Island Bay- The art of compromise

For various reasons, the Island Bay cycleway on The Parade has been fraught since its inception. If you drive down The Parade you can see why. For me it seemed a Champagne idea developed on a beer budget. The local people said to Wellington City Council that they hadn’t listened to the local community well enough. An independent review in 2016 confirmed this. So later in 2016 and through 2017, the Council worked to rectify the cycleway design. Community workshops were held, ideas sought and the Council’s professional advisors developed up 4 new options.

In the past, The Mayor and Councillors had been accused of interfering with officer developed options, so we kept well away this time other than saying we wanted a small number of pragmatic options. (more…)

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13 Sep

Communities Working Together

Last year I brought my local community together so that our voice was heard by Council. The group that was formed (Khandallah Residents Group) mobilised almost 500 submissions within a couple of months. Council was forced to listen and change their plans for a better solution.  As part of this activity, I reached out to other communities (Johnsonville , Karori and Island Bay) facing similar issues.  Communities right across the city want to work together to get the best for Wellington. (more…)

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