Wellington City Councilors have voted to allow a proposal to open up Manners Mall to buses and extend Cuba Mall to Wakefield Street.
The plan is designed to improve bus ser-vices and create better pedestrian links, but not everyone is in agreement with the plan.
Residents’ submissions to the council showed 74% opposition to the proposal, contrasting sharply with an AC Nielsen survey which showed that of 500 people surveyed, two thirds supported the plan. The ‘Save Manners Mall’ group on Facebook has 4631 members.
On Tuesday 21 July, a ‘Chalk the Walk’ protest was held, where the public were invited to Manners Mall to write messages to the City Council in chalk.
Chalk the Walk organiser Benjamin Easton says he intends to file for a judicial review of the decision in the High Court on the 27th. He suggests the Council have made an error on how they went about the consultative processes.
“They went too fast. They plan now to run a special procedure that should have been run before they made the decision,” Easton said.
If Easton’s appeal to the High Court is unsuccessful, the changes to Manners Mall and lower Cuba Street are expected to begin mid-2010.