Greater Wellington Regional Council
PO Box 11-646
Manners Street
WELLINGTON 6142
13 February 2007
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Wellington Regional Land Transport Strategy.
The Guardians of Pauatahanui Inlet is an incorporated society, with about 200 financial members, that was set up in 1991 to promote the recognition of the ecological, historical, recreational and cultural values of the Pauatahanui Inlet.
Pauatahanui Inlet is identified in the Regional Coastal plan as a significant coastal environment and is registered as a site of National Significance in the Sites of Special Wildlife Interest database. It is a special place. It is of value to society not only because of its wildlife, but also for its importance as a place for recreation and relaxation. It ranks high in the attributes needed to sustain the ‘quality of life’ that the Wellington region affords its population.
We appreciate, and are grateful, that the Strategy acknowledges this and recognises (page 28) that the Inlet is a “sensitive receiving environment” that is adversely affected by “transport-channeled stormwater and sediments”, and that the Strategy must be proactive in response to this danger. But we are concerned that by commenting only on the ecological damage to water quality (and thus to its aquatic biodiversity) caused by traffic around the Inlet margins you are ignoring its effect on recreational activity. In particular the ever increasing traffic flow on SH 58 and on Grays Road is decreasing their attractiveness to walkers and cyclists and is making them very hazardous.
Our interest in the Wellington Regional Land Transport Strategy is solely with its potential to alleviate the impact of vehicular traffic on the ecology of the Inlet and the ability of people to fully appreciate and utilise its recreational and aesthetic values. We want to be certain that those responsible for planning and implementing the Strategy fully appreciate the value of the Inlet to the local and regional population and thus include in their plans measures to ensure that the adverse effects of circum-Inlet traffic are reduced as much as possible.
Guardians welcome and support the general drift of the Strategy. We agree that Transmission Gully Motorway has the potential to radically reduce the traffic around the Inlet but believe that more can and should be done. TGM should drastically reduce the use of the roads around the Inlet by commuter and business traffic between Kapiti (and north) and the Hutt Valley. But it will not much effect the traffic flows to and from the central and upper Hutt Valley to the Porirua basin, which we believe will still use SH 58 and Grays Road unless an alternative link, e.g. Belmont-Porirua, is constructed. A pessimistic case can even be made that traffic from Kapiti to Porirua will elect to take TGM/SH 58, worsening the current situation in which these vehicles use SH 1.
For these reasons we urge you to give consideration to further ways in which the traffic volume around the Inlet can be reduced. Ideally these roads should carry only the most local of traffic – and certainly be almost free of large trucks. Only in this way can we slow down the pollution of the Inlet’s waters to a level that can be tolerated by the aquatic flora and fauna. Only in this way can we restore and enhance the recreational opportunities that the Inlet and its margins offer to the public at large.
John Wells
Chairperson
