Wellington City Council confirms it spent millions on new parking system after Ombudsman probe
The council switched to the new paperless system at the start of 2024 with new meters also offering the choice of English or Te reo Māori instructions.
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Scoop
14 hours ago
- Scoop
New Location For Toi Pōneke Arts Centre Announced
Wellington City Council is pleased to announce a new home for Toi Pōneke Arts Centre on Market Lane, expected to open in June next year. The current Toi Pōneke Abel Smith Street premises will close early June 2026 to coincide with the new site opening at 3-6 Market Lane – located in part of the iconic building on the corner of Cable Street and Market Lane. Wellington City Council has operated Toi Pōneke Arts Centre in Abel Smith Street since 2005. It was opened to support the Wellington creative sector, providing temporary rental space for artist studios and offices, residencies, and a programme of exhibitions and events. As Toi Pōneke Arts Centre celebrates its 20th birthday in September 2025, the Market Lane 20-year lease ensures that the service will continue to provide support to Wellington creatives. A new vision and tuakana-teina kaupapa was developed for Toi Pōneke last year. The Market Lane premises will play an integral role in bringing the new vision and kaupapa to life. It will be a vibrant, accessible, and inclusive space that nurtures collaboration, creativity and cultural exchange between artists, and welcomes visitors and supporters from the community, says Deputy Mayor Laurie Foon. 'The new Toi Pōneke Arts Centre will provide enhanced facilities, directly supporting Wellington artists with the space and resources they need to create and innovate. 'We want our city to thrive as the creative capital so providing space that will inspire new collaborations, nurture emerging talent, and be a place for artists to flourish, for years to come is vital,' adds Deputy Mayor Foon. Toi Pōneke activities align with the outcomes of Council'sTākai Herepartnership agreement andTūpiki Ora Strategy, and everything Toi Pōneke does contributes to the outcomes of theAho Tini 2030 Arts, Culture and Creativity Strategy. Toi Pōneke at Market Lane will offer 1959m² of floor area across three levels, featuring artist studios, offices, a workshop space, and flexible spaces including dance studios, drama rehearsal space, a gallery, and a cultural/pōwhiri space. The building is accessible, seismically sound, and a character property with high stud heights and plenty of natural light. In partnership with mana whenua, and with input from Wellington's creative sector and the Toi Pōneke community, the re-imagined Toi Pōneke vision is defined as a dynamic space to support artists to develop and grow. It will achieve this by offering limited term rental agreements and by using the tuakana-teina kaupapa to connect artists with support from more senior practitioners. Developing alternative venue options for Toi Pōneke is a strategic priority in the Council's Long-term Plan. The move and fit-out of the new premises are within the financial parameters set out in the 2024-34 Council's Long-term Plan. The total budget in the 2024-34 Long-term Plan for the design and fit-out is $6 million. Applications for limited term artist studios, arts offices, and a workshop space at Market Lane will open 27 August 2025 and close 28 September 2025. All details, including rental costs and an online application form, will be available on the Toi Pōneke website when applications open. For now, it's business as usual at Toi Pōneke Abel Smith Street, open daily except public holidays. Visit for opening hours, the latest exhibition details and what's on. Background and resources Aho Tini 2030 is Council's arts, culture, and creativity strategy, which focuses on strengthening and growing Wellington's creative ecosystem. An action in the 2022-24 Aho Tini Action Plan was to further develop how Toi Pōneke Arts Centre can continue to support the arts and creative sector, including partnership and co-location opportunities, and support incubation opportunities and emerging artists. There will be 9 limited term artist studios (plus another that will be used for artists in residence), 6 arts offices, and a workshop space in the new Toi Pōneke, alongside flexible hireable spaces including dance studios and drama rehearsal, multipurpose, a gallery, and a cultural/pōwhiri space. There will also be opportunities to display artwork throughout the building. Aho Tini 2030 Arts, Cultural, and Creativity Strategy Tākai Here Partnership Tūpiki Ora Strategy
NZ Herald
19 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Wellington City Council confirms it spent millions on new parking system after Ombudsman probe
Wellington City Council has finally revealed how much it spent on installing a new pay-by-plate parking system, after the Ombudsman launched an investigation. The council switched to the new paperless system at the start of 2024 with new meters also offering the choice of English or Te reo Māori instructions.
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Letters to the Editor: electricity, bombs and gumboots
Today's Letters to the Editor from readers cover topics including when cheap power was an advantage, why nuclear bombs are no good to Iran, and the charm of gumboots. Shooting ourselves in the foot over reforms In New Zealand we seem to have developed a talent for turning competitive advantages into disadvantages. Remember the days when cheap electricity was a competitive advantage for New Zealand. We had industries here based on that cheap electricity. Then we had the Bradford reforms to make electricity even cheaper. Somehow that ended up maximising the price for all New Zealanders and contributing to the closure of those once burgeoning industries. Now something similar seems to be happening to other New Zealand products. Dairy and other commodity export prices are good, benefitting some. However, as detailed in the ODT (18.6.25), the hospitality industry is finding that butter, cheese and milk are becoming luxury items. If we are indeed the most efficient producers of dairy products in the world, why is this not giving a competitive advantage to other related New Zealand businesses and why are consumers being held to ransom? Economists I have heard on the subject simply shrug their shoulders and say we are an export-led economy. To me that sounds too simplistic, and I do not think it passes the sniff test. Something is off. There is no doubt that we need to seriously rework our electricity system. I think that present circumstances, where good export income results in benefit for a few, and high prices and inflation for the rest, suggests that there are other areas that deserve close attention. PTSD In response to Dave Tackney (Letters ODT 24.6.25), hasn't it occurred to Mr Tackney that Māori people, as a collective and in general, have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. After being invaded by the English, lied to, manipulated, subjugated with superior weapons, their land and sources of food stolen, made third-class citizens and impoverished, it is understandable that a chasm would manifest in their spirit. And let's not forget that the English, whether royalists or Cromwellians had perfected their tactics on the Irish for centuries, leading to expulsion from their land and famine. I will not say that the Māori people are victims of abuse by a foreign power because the word victim is demeaning and patronising to them. Obviously, their trauma and anger are misdirected and it is always with sorrow that we hear about the children who are victims in their turn. Metiria Stanton Turei is not trying to divide the country along racial lines, the arrival of the colonising English did it, then subsequent governments enforced it. Atomic fallout Re Greg Glendining letter (25.6.25) claiming our learned Prof Robert Patman to be stunningly naive believing Iran's claims they don't want a nuclear bomb, they just want uranium for peaceful purposes like other countries for electricity etc. A fact Mr Glendining strongly disagrees with. Well I will tell you why a nuclear bomb is no good to Iran and useless on Israel. Grab a map of the Middle East and see how close the borders are to Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. These countries are packed together. If they drop a nuclear bomb on Israel the nuclear radiation fallout would destroy the very people Iran claims to be fighting for. That's why they have developed non-nuclear drones and missiles. At the same time, if Iran did have a nuclear weapon as a deterrent against attack, Israel and the Zionists of Israel and America would not have attacked Iran, the very same reason they haven't attacked North Korea which has nuclear weapons as a deterrent. Photo heart-warming moment in week of woes Amongst all the doom and gloom of articles and photographs in current newspapers, especially those relating to terrible events overseas, how lovely to see that wonderful photograph on the front page of the Otago Daily Times (25.6.25), of the little boy seated amongst all the discarded muddy gumboots, as one of his own falls to the ground. Hopefully his mum or dad was standing there to retrieve it for him. I often smile when I see rows of bashful muddy gumboots standing in a row outside country cafes in New Zealand. I find the sight quite charming, as it is I think very much a Kiwi custom; I never saw this in any other country overseas. How nice of our farmers and workmen to be so considerate, and also not to risk a rebuke if they trail mud inside. The only thing I wonder at, looking at that photo of the very many pairs left in rows of disarray outside the Hindon Hall on Saturday, is that they all look the same (apart from various layers of mud on them) and how does each owner recognise his or her own rightful pair? But I bet they do. Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@
