Dear Wellington City Council,

The WCC is currently consulting on a proposed Spacial Plan for the city. The council has stated it:
"... has statutory obligations under the new National Policy Statement on Urban Development 2020 (NPS-UD) in relation to how the District Plan provides for future development.
...
However, there are some aspects of the new policy which will require the Council to enable a greater level of density than had previously been signalled.
These include:
* Allowing building heights of at least 6 storeys within at least a walkable catchments of the city centre and metropolitan centres as well as existing and planned rapid transit stops." (WCC SPatial Plan Web Site)

The NPS-UD itself includes the following definitions:
"rapid transit service means any existing or planned frequent, quick, reliable and high-capacity public transport service that operates on a permanent route (road or rail) that is largely separated from other traffic
rapid transit stop means a place where people can enter or exit a rapid transit service, whether existing or planned" (UPS-UD Page 8)

I am interested in the criteria used by the WCC to assess which Wellington public transport stops are deemed to be a rapid transit stop, the assistance the WCC received in developing these criteria and how the WCC applied these criteria to determine which locations are rapid transit stops in the city.

1) Can the WCC please provide copies of the reports, presentations or working papers where the Spatial Plan definitions of "rapid transit service" and/or "rapid transit stop" were analysed or discussed ?

2) Can the WCC please provide copies of the meeting or workshop agendas, presentations, minutes or meeting notes at which the Spatial Plan definitions of "rapid transit service" and/or "rapid transit stop" were analysed or discussed ?

3) Can the WCC please provide copies of the reports, presentations or working papers where there was discussion on whether specific bus stops or any railway stations would or would not meet the Spatial Plan definitions of being a "rapid transit service" and/or "rapid transit stop" ?

4) Can the WCC please provide copies of the meeting or workshop agendas, presentations, minutes or meeting notes where there was discussion on whether specific bus stops or any railway stations would or would not meet the Spatial Plan definitions of being a "rapid transit service" and/or "rapid transit stop" ?

5) Can the WCC please provide copies of the correspondence with any central government ministry, department or agency where the Spatial Plan definitions of "rapid transit service" and/or "rapid transit stop" were analysed or discussed ?

6) Can the WCC please provide copies of the correspondence with any other local government councils or agencies where the Spatial Plan definitions of "rapid transit service" and/or "rapid transit stop" were analysed or discussed ?

7) Can the WCC please provide copies of the correspondence with any central government ministries, departments or agencies where there was discussion on whether specific bus stops or any railway stations would or would not meet the Spatial Plan definitions of being a "rapid transit service" and/or "rapid transit stop" ?

8) Can the WCC please provide copies of the correspondence with any other local government councils or agencies where there was discussion on whether specific bus stops or any railway stations would or would not meet the Spatial Plan definitions of being a "rapid transit service" and/or "rapid transit stop" ?

Yours faithfully,

Tony Randle

Dear BUS: Assurance,

Thank you for the update and outlining the reason for the delay past the previously deadline specified by the WCC for this information request.

That noted, the next round of public consultation hearings from submitters on the WCC Spatial Plan, including from North Wellington, are about to be heard starting at 1pm on Wednesday 18th November 2020. The requested Rapid Transit information is needed, and was expected, by submitters to the Spatial Plan and this delay is now impacting on the right to be properly informed befor their oral submissions.

Can the WCC please provide the requested information ASAP as any further delay will mean submitters to the council public hearings cannot include any understanding provided by this information which is directly related to the Spatial Plan ?

If the information cannot be provided before the start of the next round of the council's hearing of oral submissions, can the WCC please provide the timeframe on when the request information will be provided ?

Yours sincerely,

Tony Randle

Dear BUS: Assurance,

Thank you for finally releasing some of the requested information. For the 15 documents release, can the WCC please also provide the following information related to each document:
a) The date when the document was finalised by the WCC or, if not created by the WCC, received by the WCC
b) The author of the document or agency from which the document was sent (if not created by the WCC)
c) If the document was sent as an email attachment, a copy of the email to which the document was attached
d) The recipient(s) of the document within the WCC for document 1, 6, 14 and 15.
e) Where information has been withheld in a document, for each redaction, the grounds of LGOIMA under which the WCC has chosen to withhold information

I note that the provided information does not include any correspondence, workshops or meetings with the Ministry of the Environment or any other central government agency. As any and all correspondence, workshops or meetings with the Ministry of the Environment or any other central government agency that includes reference to Rapid Transit and/or Rapid Transit Stations is within the scope of this information request, can the WCC please confirm if it holds any such information ?

Finally, can you please outline the final information still to be provided ?

Yours sincerely,

Tony Randle

Dear BUS: Assurance,

Having reviewed this reply, it appears to be responding to another LGOIMA Request: https://fyi.org.nz/request/13552-jca-req...

Can you please post this response against the correct FYI request ?

Yours sincerely,

Tony Randle

Dear BUS: Assurance,

Having re-read the WCC response, I now noticed there is a very short mention of communications on Rapid Transit in the 3rd December 2020 response which is 95% about another LGOIMA response. The response states:
"On 30 November 2020 you rang and asked for further clarification regarding the Rapid Transit Stop and/or Rapid Transit Service. You asked what was the prescribed Government rules and what decision the Council made. The Council had a brief discussion with the Ministry for Environment prior to the release of the Draft Spatial Plan where the Tawa and Johnsonville lines were discussed as Rapid Transit Service/Stop."

I am afraid I find this one sentence response to four information request items unclear both in relation to the specific information originally requested and in the detail provided. In what form was this discussion held (formal meeting, phone call, talking in the street) and between which parties was it held ? When exactly did this discussion take place and what was said in this discussion ? What did the Ministry of the Environment tell the WCC about the application of the NPS-UD Rapid Transit criteria related to what are, and are not, Rapid Transit Stops and did it confirm which agency decides whether a rail station or bus stop meets the criteria of a Rapid Transit Stop under the NPS-UD? What record was kept from this discussion and when will the WCC provide a copy of this discussion?

Also, can the WCC confirm that it did not have any communication with any other central or local agency (eg the Greater Wellington Regional Council) about which public transport services would meet the criteria of "Rapid Transit" and which stations would be deemed Rapid Transit Stops ?

To resolve this lack of clarity in the WCC response on this matter, can the WCC please specifically respond to each of the following original information requests:

5) Can the WCC please provide copies of the correspondence with any central government ministry, department or agency where the Spatial Plan definitions of "rapid transit service" and/or "rapid transit stop" were analysed or discussed ?

6) Can the WCC please provide copies of the correspondence with any other local government councils or agencies where the Spatial Plan definitions of "rapid transit service" and/or "rapid transit stop" were analysed or discussed ?

7) Can the WCC please provide copies of the correspondence with any central government ministries, departments or agencies where there was discussion on whether specific bus stops or any railway stations would or would not meet the Spatial Plan definitions of being a "rapid transit service" and/or "rapid transit stop" ?

8) Can the WCC please provide copies of the correspondence with any other local government councils or agencies where there was discussion on whether specific bus stops or any railway stations would or would not meet the Spatial Plan definitions of being a "rapid transit service" and/or "rapid transit stop" ?

Finally, I am seriously unimpressed with the WCC combining two totally separate LGOIMA responses on different topics from different parties into one very late reply document with one response buried in one paragraph at the end. This information request has submitted in the 3rd of October 2020 and the response date was extended to the 16th of November when you again failed to respond. Finally, after 9 weeks and after public submissions had closed the WCC finally admitted it had had a single discussion with the Ministry for Environment at some unspecified date where Rapid Transit was discussed and for which no apparent record was kept.

Your actions on delaying and responding to this information request are very misleading and contradictory to WCC claim to be open, transparent and helpful in its communications with residents.

You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Randle