Mayor Andrew Little said the central city is the economic engine and heart of the city, and its urban landscape must be attractive, safe, and allow people to move around.<\/p>\n
He described the current state of Courtenay Pl as \u201cvariously shabby, unappealing, unsafe\u201d, and does more to drive people away from the area than invite them in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need an element of urban renewal and a sense of a refreshed public realm, because if we don\u2019t we will fail as a city.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we are under financial constraints\u201d he said, and \u201cmust spend less\u201c. <\/p>\n
Wellington City Council released its new design for the Golden Mile in 2025. Image \/ WCC<\/p>\n
The project, initially forecast at $78m, grew to $139m in 2024, paid 49% by council, and 51% by NZTA.<\/p>\n
It sought to revitalise the capital\u2019s nightlife and hospitality strip by banning private vehicles during daytime, building a cycleway running down one side of the street, widened footpaths, new public seating and outdoor dining spaces. <\/p>\n
Work began in April 2025 for the first phase of the project, aligning an intersection at one end of Courtenay Pl on Kent and Cambridge Terraces, which has since been completed.<\/p>\n
But with the adjoining works not going ahead, $1.5m may have to be spent to make that intersection safe again.<\/p>\n
Contracts for the main portion of work down Courtenay Pl were never signed despite efforts<\/a>.<\/p>\n The council hopes to retain co-funding from NZTA for new transport works, but Green councillor Rebecca Matthews believed it would be at risk.<\/p>\n Matthews and fellow Green councillors Laurie Foon and Geordie Rogers were the only ones to vote against de-scoping the project.<\/p>\n \u201cWellington has been let down by some of its elected members and by this organisation\u201d, Matthews said, blasting what she called \u201cpredatory delays leading to constant reviews and new business cases\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI am ashamed to say, even Invercargill has done more than us in pedestrianising its streets,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Rogers said continual delays left Wellingtonians fatigued and feeling that better things weren\u2019t possible for the city.<\/p>\n He said he hoped the council was able to deliver improvements to the area, and didn\u2019t \u201cjust start another 10-year cycle failing to deliver a tin mile when we could have had a golden one\u201d. <\/p>\n Labour councillor Sam O\u2019Brien said a lick of paint and new pavers alone would not improve the area, calling for further pedestrianisation of the space.<\/p>\n Independent councillor Diane Calvert said the project was well-intentioned, but poorly executed.<\/p>\n She described it as \u201ctoo expensive, too complicated, [and] too difficult to deliver\u201d.<\/p>\n Nicola Young, the longest-serving Wellington City Councillor, said she had \u201cendured this project from the start\u201d, and as someone who lived nearby, she was \u201cdelighted we finally have a sensible proposal\u201d.<\/p>\n Council officials will report back to the committee with a business case for the cheaper improvements by the end of the year.<\/p>\n Ethan Manera<\/a> is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Andrew Little said the central city is the economic engine and heart of the city, and its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[806,95166,6434,2199,26519,7123,3372,2082,16555,23834,305,27705,14910,42782,111,43,139,69,2170,3263,87106,243000,4157,13020,5905,22052,52],"class_list":["post-483927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-as","tag-axed","tag-cheaper","tag-city","tag-councillors","tag-current","tag-dubbed","tag-for","tag-form","tag-golden","tag-have","tag-instead","tag-kill","tag-mile","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-plan","tag-project","tag-pursuing","tag-scaleddown","tag-tin","tag-version","tag-vote","tag-voted","tag-wellington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Golden Mile project became the subject of strong public debate, with a protest group rallying in 2024 against the plans. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n
The Golden Mile plan emerged from the now-killed Let’s get Wellington Moving plan, which proposed mass transit in the capital. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n