It was nice to read something positive in the Dom Post about Celia this morning, despite their best attempts to spin it in a negative light.
At it’s core, Celia is proposing that council revive a ‘bus priority’ plan from 2008, which it seems centers around Courtney Place.
The 2008 plan contained five options to restrict private vehicle access in Courtenay Place, the most drastic of which was to close it between 6am and 6pm.
What’s interesting is the way that Dave Burgess has tried to spin this story (through the opening line “Cars could be banned from Courtenay Place under a proposal from Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown.”) to make it sound like Celia is dead keen on banning cars.
That is simply not the case – it does seem like her preferred option is limiting access during peak hours.
WCC Watch 
I was particularly bemused by the comment from the token retailer:
Who knew that Bennetts Giftworld was a drive-through business! Or is she suggesting that the 6,500 people who travel by car are somehow better customers than the 40,000 people who travel by bus … ? Or is it that the 16,000 car parks in the CBD (the third-largest number by capita in the western world) are simply inadequate for the vast number of customers that pour through the doors of Bennetts Giftworld … ?
Wake me up when a retailer says something sensible about transport in this city.