mt victoria, wellington

Christchurch technology company Dove Electronics Ltd has made a very generous donation to the Mt Victoria community, providing high-quality video surveillance equipment to enable the Pirie Street bus tunnel to be monitored.

Over on the Save The Basin Reserve site there's a posting of the video shot on the recent Mt Victoria Historical Society heritage walk, hosted by local residents Joanne Newman and Alan Olliver.

Updated: Turns out we can also embed the video, so here it is:

Basin Reserve Historic Walk from MountVictoria on Vimeo.

Our fantastic Community Liaison Manager, Tania Austin, is spending her last day working at Crossways today.

The Mt Victoria Historical Society is hosting a guided tour of the Basin Reserve area, highlighting stories of cricket, canals, great events and fascinating people, from Mother Aubert to Waring Taylor, and associating them with the landmarks we see every day, including the Home of Compassion creche on the site where Mother Aubert founded her Wellington mission.

Date: Sunday March 22 (postponement date March 29), starting at 2.30 pm.
For more information and bookings, contact Joanna Newman on 385 2254 or at jonewman@xtra.co.nz

This is a particularly topical walk, given the threat to the Basin Reserve from the ill-considered flyover planned by the very government agencies that should be protecting this vital piece of Wellington's heritage.

Councillor Celia Wade-Brown has sent through the following message about the annual Walk2Work Day - which happens this week.

Dear Wellingtonians!

Walk2Work day is just around the corner. So we would like to invite you to walk all or part of your daily journey! If it's too far to walk all the way, catch a bus, train or park your car or cycle on the edge of the city! Every metre walked counts!

Clyde Quay School is hosting a walk around local kitchens from 1:30pm to 4:30pm this coming Saturday for those looking for inspiration and ideas. As the photo shows, there are some fabulous kitchens on display, and all proceeds from the event go to Clyde Quay School.

Tickets are $25 and are available from the school. E-mail office@clydequay.school.nz for details and bookings. Tickets are limited, so get yours now!

The High Court has just issued a judgement in favour of the Mt Victoria Residents Association, after the Association sought a judicial review of the Wellington City Council's decision to issue a resource consent to the brothel at 103 Pirie St.

For more photos of the day, see our Flickr photostream.

The judicial review of the Wellington City Council's decision to grant a resource consent to the brothel at 103 Pirie Street is being heard in the High Court today.

President of the Mt Victoria Residents Association, Jessica Closson (above), said she was quietly confident of the outcome before the hearing this morning, and that she was looking forward to hearing what the court had to say on the matter. She noted that the hearing was set down for a day and a half, although she was unable to say how soon it would be before a decision would be available from the Judge hearing the matter.

UPDATE: Jessica has just sent the following e-mail:

"Today's High Court proceedings were encouraging, at times entertaining, and the judge was fair and not distracted by arguments of questionable relevance attempted by counsel for the brothel. The hearing concluded by 12.45pm. Our counsel Tom Bennion covered all our points, and had the right case law to support our arguments.

"Neither Lovely Lily nor her partner Jason (the brothel owners) were in court. The residents, however, filled the courtroom's gallery. It was a good day for us.

"The judge has reserved his decision, and I will hear from Tom Bennion as soon as a decision is made public."