Town Belt Legislative & Policy Review

Aerial view of the city looking south

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The Wellington Town Belt is a large area of open space providing a scenic backdrop to the inner city and offering recreational opportunities to residents and visitors.

Today it includes nearly 400 hectares stretching in a horseshoe shape from Mount Victoria / Matairangi in the north-east, to Berhampore at its southern end, then north-west to Te Ahumairangi Hill between Wadestown and Thorndon.

Wellington Town Belt Map (312KB PDF)

For over 170 years the Town Belt has been a reserve for the public to enjoy.

Key features include:

parks, reserves and vegetated slopes visible from the central city
the continuous horse-shoe shape of undeveloped hills between the central city and surrounding suburbs
a wide range of sporting and recreational activities.

How the Town Belt is currently managed

The Town Belt is held in Trust by Wellington City Council, under the Town Belt Deed 1873. The Town Belt is also a reserve under the Reserves Act 1977 and managed as a recreation reserve.

In 1995, the Council adopted the current Town Belt Management Plan.

Stage 1 - Development of the Town Belt guiding principles

The Council has been reviewing how the Town Belt is managed. The first stage of the review was to develop and consult on some guiding principles for the management of the Town Belt.

Guiding principles are a way to make sure community wishes and values are reflected in the day-to-day management of reserves.

In 2010, an analysis of the legislative and policy framework for the Town Belt indicated a need for:

a clearer statement of purpose or guiding principles in the Town Belt Management Plan to help make sure that community aspirations were reflected in the policies and operational practice
clarity about how the Council's ongoing relationship with mana whenua regarding the Town Belt should be incorporated in the Town Belt Management Plan.

Following workshops, discussions with stakeholders and research, a draft set of guiding principles was developed and released for public consultation in July 2011.

In December 2011, following analysis of submissions, the Council approved an updated set of guiding principles for the Town Belt.

Town Belt Guiding Principles (16KB PDF) | Text version (6KB RTF)

Stage 2 - Review of the Town Belt Management Plan (1995) and the Town Belt Reinstatement Policy (1998)

The opportunity for public comments on the draft management plan closed in December 2012.

News - Response to Town Belt Plan - 22.01.13

The draft plan covers:

389.68 hectares held in trust under the Town Belt Deed
85.4375 hectares of Wellington City Council reserve and open-space land managed as the Town Belt.

The draft plan replaces the Town Belt Management Plan (1995) and the Town Belt Reinstatement Policy (1998). It provides direction and policies to assist in the management of the Town Belt for the next 10 years.

The draft plan does not cover Wellington Botanic Garden, Wellington Zoo or Wellington Showgrounds (except the artificial sportsfield behind Te Whaea). In addition, it has specific policies to manage the former Chest Hospital on Alexandra Road.

For more details on the draft plan, see:

Draft Town Belt Management Plan (13.2MB PDF) | Text version (744KB RTF)

The Council has used the Town Belt guiding principles for this review.

In line with the terms of the Town Belt Deed, the Town Belt will continue to be used as a public recreation ground for the people of Wellington.

Stage 3 - Legislative change

We propose to strengthen the protection of the Town Belt. To do this, we will need to draft a local Parliamentary Bill.

The Bill will help to modernise the governance arrangements for the Town Belt under the Town Belt Deed, and would allow land to be added and, in some cases, removed from the Town Belt.

For this purpose, the Council has prepared drafting instructions outlining what the local Parliamentary Bill would look like and aim to achieve.

Recently we sought public comments on drafting instructions outlining what the local Parliamentary Bill would look like and aim to achieve. Submissions closed in December 2012.

What will not change?

The proposed Bill would replace the provisions of the Reserves Act 1977, meaning the Town Belt will no longer be a recreation reserve under that Act. Other existing local statutes will also be repealed.
Future management plans would be prepared under a process contained within the proposed Bill.

What are the key things that the Bill would do?

In conjunction with the Town Belt Deed, it would establish a legal framework for the Council's trusteeship and management of the Town Belt that is self-contained (does not rely on the Reserves Act 1977) and easily understood.
It would be consistent with the Town Belt guiding principles adopted by the Council in December 2011.
It would recognise the history and significance of the Original Town Belt.
It would provide the Council with relatively flexible powers to manage the Town Belt, provided that it does so in a way that is consistent with both the charitable purpose of the Town Belt Deed and the management plan in force at the time.

Next steps

We are considering comments and suggestions from the public, and will present a final management plan to the Council for approval in June 2013.
We are also considering comments and suggestions on the proposed legislative changes. If the Council agrees that legislative change is necessary, we will prepare the legislation. The local Member of Parliament will sponsor this as a local Bill through Parliament. There will be opportunities for public comment on the Bill.