RNZ News headline today: “Govt spends $10m to fix national war memorial bells, fires only person who can play” The government spent over $10 million to do up the country’s bell tower that plays for fallen soldiers, but is now getting rid of the only person who plays it. The country’s sole carillonist, Timothy Hurd, has been playing the bells – 74 of them, totalling 70…
heritage
So, a decision has been made by the Councillors of the WCC – let’s hope it was the right call. I’m not jumping for joy, I’m not down in the dumps, I’m just evaluating the decision. Hmmm. Pondering. I actually watched a whole lot of the debate on the You Tube channel, live, which is a tedious thing, but vaguely instructive. They need to sort their…
The time is ripe – the end is near. Gradually, slowly, the Independent Commissioners are releasing their Reports onto the interwebbies, and very slowly, a sleepy group of Wellingtonians are reading them. So many words, expensive words, produced at a rate of thousands of dollars per hour. It is a select group, as in reality so few people really give a toss, and yet in time,…
A quick link in here for anyone that is interested but as yet have not seen: The SpinOff has announced a War for Wellington, which is doing everything that we here at the Eye of the Fish should have been doing (but of course, he gets paid for his work, but I don’t). It is brilliant, and you should go have a look at it now….
Thanks to Greenwelly for alerting me to the substantial report on the WCC website, which is both exhausting, and fascinating. There will be a book in there somewhere, on how a project could go so wrong and spiral way out of control. So, there is an indication of where the project has been going wrong – but also, it seems there have been so many changes,…
Right now Wellington is undergoing hearings on what may be the most important discussions on the future – the Hearings on the proposed new District Plan. There have been a number of these Hearings, which have looked at General District Plan matters, Suburban matters, Heritage aspects, and in the current hearing, the City Centres. The outcome from these Hearings will affect the city looks, works and…
There’s a depressing familiarity with the news of the destruction by fire of the sawtooth roofed buildings at Shelly Bay. It is the classic “accident” that so often happens to heritage buildings – the building is carefully preserved for years, the building gradually deteriorates, and just when something was going to be done, the building mysteriously burns down. Except in this case, perhaps not quite so…
The only way is UP, baby, for you and me now… So sang Yaz and the Plastic Population back in the 80s, and it’s what we are going to be singing now as well. Put your dancing shoes on and smash out the House music classics. There’s no doubt that the densities of our cities are going to be intensified, but we are left to discuss…
Wellington’s main (only?) central Railway Station has been getting a lot of press recently, mostly over the intransigence of the Heritage NZ lobby who are, to be honest, being silly over the heritage of this building. They’ve only just today approved the installation of a pedestrian ramp out the front doors – the disabled have been forced to use the side door for the last several…
Not sure if you realise this yet, but the proverbial cat has just been thrown amongst the proverbial pigeons. Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (what used to be called the Historic Places Trust) has just announced three new grade 1 heritage listings in Wellington: Trades Hall, Wellington Central Library, and a combined Gordon Wilson and McLean flats as well. Trades Hall was the site of NZ’s…