Great news for Island Bay with confirmation that the sea wall will be rebuilt. As we had mentioned, Councillor Iona Pannett had come under intense community criticism for appearing to use the project to do the Greens bidding and rid Wellington of another pesky-earth-destroying road by demolishing the whole wall and the road so that the beach can you know, connect to the park, man.
But after the community called her out, Pannett came out strong saying she would resign if the wall wasn’t built.
And just as Wellington began to once again hope – Southern Ward Councillor, Paul Eagle, comes out saying he is “sick of” all the delay tactics and pushed hard for the project to proceed… Eagle’s work behind the scenes and the excellent efforts of community stallwart, Vicki Greco, has meant everyone has seen sense and committed to rebuild the wall... But Eagle’s efforts mean Pannett’s kind offer is no longer on the table.
While Eagle has had a history of cosying up to the Greens with co-branded campaign hoardings, there hadn’t been a lot of love lost since the last election between the staunch Labourite and his Green colleagues. So you can imagine Eagle would have gone through something of a crisis of conscience as saving the wall would mean saving his Green colleague from her offer of resignation…
Jokes aside, after two long years of inaction it is a good thing to see the wall finally getting sorted.
WCC Watch 