Watt's Peninsula Coalition Formed

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Watts Peninsula is the old name for the northern end of Miramar Peninsula. A group has been created to look at protecting the area from possible development. Read on or check the Facebook page.

The Watts Peninsula Coalition group has been formed both to advocate for community involvement in the decision-making process and to ensure that the opportunity is not lost to develop the area into something that delivers historical, recreational, economic and environmental value to all of Wellington.

We feel very strongly that the community needs to be consulted, which isn't happening, and discussions appear to be going on behind closed doors. Further, we are very concerned that proposals by the Ministry of Defence appear to be focused only on large-scale housing developments which would see historic sites destroyed and significant limits on any future recreational or environmental opportunities in the area.

So while we are not advocating any one model going forward, we are advocating that the local community be at the centre of discussions and that a long-term view be taken of the area rather than a focus on the short-term, which appears to be the case.

Mission

To protect the values and features of Te Motu Kairangi / Miramar Peninsula for their own sake and for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations.

Through advocacy for the public ownership of Defence land on Miramar Peninsula in its entirety to ensure that values are not lost or compromised by neglect or inappropriate subdivision, use or development.

Newspoints

The Defence plan

• Defence is planning intensive housing estates at the northern end of Miramar Headland, known as Watts Peninsula.
• The Defence plan for housing estates on the headland of the Peninsula will see nationally important historic sites razed and the recreational potential of the area lost to the public.
• Defence has developed its proposed housing estate in secret, without consulting the public, and with full knowledge of the historic and recreational potential of the area.
• Wellington City's new vision of a Smart Green Capital is undermined by the Defence proposal to build on the last major public open space area in the Eastern Suburbs.
• Defence is just interested in making money from its land. By their own admission, the land is "surplus to requirements". There's no benefit to the people of Wellington from the Defence proposal.
• The Defence force compulsorily acquired the land in the 1880s for military purposes, paying the owners a fraction of the real value.

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