This is an HTML version of an attachment to the Official Information request 'Request for Information to NZTA about the Local Government Commission Reorganisation of Wellington Transport'.
From:
s9(2)(a)
To:
s9(2)(a)
 Wayne Heerdegen;
Cc:
s9(2)(a)
Subject:
RE: Information requested by 22 April and 29 April - Thank you
Date:
Friday, 22 April 2016 4:47:44 p.m.
Attachments:
Martin Jenkins Presentation to Mayoral Forum 22 April.pdf
Thank you very much to those who have provided the information we requested below – much
appreciated.
Mayoral Forum today
s9(2)(a)
 and  s9(2)(a)  were at today’s Mayoral Forum presenting their take on the
problem definition, investment objectives, CSFs -  building on the Castalia report & workshops,
THE  ACT 
and your notes on what’s working well etc. Slides attached FYI.
Joint economic case workshops – 27 April and 4 May
We look forward to seeing some of you next week at the Upper Hutt Cossie Club. s9(2)(a)
s9(2)(a)
  s9(2)(a) . We’ve got a good mix of councillors and Mayors (12), CEs (5) and
council officers (7) coming.
Community engagement
We are planning some community engagement for transport at the same time as our Wairarapa
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engagement through June and early July. We’ll be doing online engagement to  test the case for
change and ways to address it, including CCOs.
This engagement will be more specific than  “Let’s get Welly moving” and will fit between that
campaign’s public engagement.
We also plan workshops for interested business, community and transport groups in early/mid
June in Kapiti, Wairarapa, Lower Hutt and Wellington – by invitation rather than by public
advertising.  If there is anyone you think we should invite, please let me know by 13 May. I’ll
INFORMATION 
send you the invitation lists to check over about 10 May.
Have a great long weekend.
Regards
RELEASED 
From: s9(2)(a)  
Sent: Monday, 11 April 2016 1:44 p.m.
To: '
Wayne Heerdegen';
OFFICIAL s9(2)(a)
s9(2)(a)
Cc: 
Subject: Information requested by 22 April and 29 April
Importance: High
Afternoon
Information request by 22 April and 29 April
The attachment to this email sets out information that the Commission is requesting from each

council to develop the indicative business case for the transport work.
We presented the attached paper at CEs Forum on Friday and the CEs asked that I contact you
directly with this information request.
 
There are two tranches of information: priority items requested by 22 April and secondary items
requested by 29 April.
 
I appreciate this information will take some resource and time to put together and I thank you in
advance for your cooperation. FYI, the timeline for the project is driven by the need to make
substantial progress before local body electioneering takes off in earnest.
 
Working with council officers
s9(2)(a)
 at MartinJenkins will also be seeking a meeting with you and your Chief Executive to
s9(2)(a)
THE  ACT 
test the strategic case and early stage economic case.  
has reviewed the initial work you did
in August/September for our workshops (what’s working well and not well etc.), our workshops
notes, as well as your council’s feedback on the Castalia report. Therefore these interviews will
build on the input you’ve already given us.    
 
Full council workshops
Up to this point, we have been presenting the same information at the CEs Forum for input, then
the Mayoral Forum and then at council workshops – the same content at each council. 
However, given the time it takes to get around all the councils, we will be running a slightly
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different approach for this next stage of work. This means that the content for discussing with
councils will have evolved slightly at each council workshop. We will send you and your CE an
agenda and slides before each council workshop so there are no surprises.
 
Joint economic case workshops
We would like to convene two joint council workshops to develop the economic case, involving
one to two interested councillors and a senior officer from each council, and one to two NZTA
officials.  Dates for the workshops are 27 April and 4 May, 6.30-8.30pm, venue TBC. We’ll be
INFORMATION 
writing to your Mayor’s Office today to invite them. I’ll copy you in.
 
Any queries, please contact me or Paul.
Kind regards
s9(2)(a)
 
RELEASED 
From:  s9(2)(a) 
Sent: Monday, 4 April 2016 1:13 p.m.
To: '
 Wayne Heerdegen;  s9(2)(a)
s9(2)(a)
Cc: 
Subject: Final report: Wellington Regional Transport: Options for Change (Castalia report)
OFFICIAL 
 
Afternoon
 
Castalia report finalised
Just in case this didn’t come through your internal system, please see email below to your
Mayor/Chair.
Thanks for your input and effort to help us put this report together.

 
Through February and March, we presented the report at workshops with all councils except
WCC and KCDC.
 
Councillors’ response was generally muted interest. A couple commented that the framework
was useful considering the options and they appreciated having a broad range of options up for
discussion. Most of the questions made it clear that more specificity was needed in terms of the
challenges in practice and the options to resolve them (e.g. governance arrangements).
 
Information request coming
The next step will involve us asking you for detailed information to support an indicative business
case, which will be more specific and practical than the Castalia report. I flagged this at CEs
Forum last month. The timing and specifics of the request are TBC but it will likely involve
THE  ACT 
significant work for you and your people this month.
 
Councillor and officer workshops planned
We would like to convene two joint council workshops to develop the economic case, involving
one to two interested councillors and a senior officer from each council, and one to two NZTA
officials.
 
Tentative dates for the workshops are 27 April and 4 May, 6.30-8.30pm.
 
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Workshop participants would work with the consultants to:
•             Confirm the short list of options, including the extent to which they provide a suitably
complete description
•             Confirm the critical success factors
•             Assess short listed options against investment objectives and critical success factors.
 
As preparation for the workshops, the consultants will build on Castalia’s work to:
•             Develop the issues identified into a clear problem statement against which the case for
INFORMATION 
change can be assessed
•             Draft proposed investment objectives for any change
•             Ensure that the options identified are suitably complete, for example by being clear
about the governance arrangements
•             Propose a short list of 3 or 4 options for more detailed consideration in the workshops.
 
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The preparation work will be tested with CEs and Mayors at upcoming Forums on 8 April and 22
April.
 
I’ll keep you updated as the work progresses and send you any papers.
 
OFFICIAL 
Kind regards
s9(2)(a)
 
 
 
 
From:  s9(2)(a)
 
Sent: Tuesday, 29 March 2016 10:07 a.m.

To:
s9(2)(a)
Cc: '
Subject: Final report: Wellington Regional Transport: Options for Change (Castalia report)
 
Dear Wellington Mayoral Forum and NZTA Central Region Director
 
We are pleased to provide you with the finalised Castalia report on options for
changing transport arrangements in the Wellington region.
 
The Wellington Mayoral Forum, the New Zealand Transport Agency and the LGC
commissioned the transport report last year, as part of our collaborative process to
investigate local government functions in the region. You will recall Castalia gave
THE  ACT 
a presentation on the draft report to the Mayoral Forum meeting in December
2015. A similar presentation has also been made to most of the councils in the
region. Most councils provided detailed comments on the draft report in January
2016.
 
We’ve also attached councils’ comments and a version of the final report with
tracked changes, showing how those comments were incorporated into the final
version.
 
We would appreciate you sharing the final report with your councillors.
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We are continuing with the next step of the transport work – to develop an
indicative business case for the options, which will also include governance
options and implementation phasing
.   The first step of that work is to consult
with your chief executives and NZTA (at the next CEs forum next week) on a
scoping report covering:
·         how the business case process will be executed
·
INFORMATION 
         what information we would like to request from your officers, and
·         how we continue to involve councillors in the development of the work.
 
We appreciate councils’ collaboration in this project and your continued support for
this work.
 
RELEASED 
Kind regards,
 
s9(2)(a)
 
 
s9(2)(a)
 | Chief Executive Officer| Local Government Commission
OFFICIAL 
Department of Internal Affairs Te Tari Taiwhenua
Phone +  s9(2)(a)
 | Mobile  s9(2)(a)
 
 
 





THE  ACT 
WELLINGTON 
REGIONAL 
TRANSPORT 

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Business Case 
Presentation to  
Mayoral Forum 
INFORMATION 
22 April 2016 
Emailed to council officers  
RELEASED 
OFFICIAL 


WELLINGTON TRANSPORT BUSINESS 
CASE 

THE  ACT 
Develop an indicative business case: 

Evaluate local government transport model options 

Will inform public and targeted engagement 

Will not identify a single preferred way forward 
Undertaken by: 
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MartinJenkins 
Local government structuring and planning, business case developing, 
financing arrangements 
Cranleigh 
Local government finance, balance sheet analysis and restructuring 
TDG 
Transport strategy, policy and funding, transport planning, public transport 
INFORMATION 
Key dates: 
Scoping report: 
4 April 
Draft business case: 
20 May 
Final business case: 
8 July 
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TODAY’S OBJECTIVES 
THE  ACT 
To set out some early thoughts for reaction on: 
• The wider context in which transports sits (‘strategic context’
• The problems affecting transport governance, planning and service 
delivery in the region (‘problem definition’) 
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• What we would want to achieve by any change (‘investment objectives’) 
 
To provide a heads up on the issues we will be exploring 
INFORMATION 
 
 
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STRATEGIC CONTEXT 
- what are we trying to achieve with transport? 
- what else is going on? 

THE  ACT 
 
Government Policy Statement on Land Transport 
Strategic direction 

Economic growth and productivity 

Road safety 

Value for money 
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Increasing compliance required to secure funding 
 
Wellington Regional Strategy 

Building a world-class infrastructure to support a diverse resilient economy: build resilience, 
improve connections 
INFORMATION 
Regional Land Transport Plan 

Economic growth, safety, resilience, liveability 
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Better local services reforms 
 

 
OFFICIAL 
 


PROBLEM DEFINITION – initial thoughts 
 
 1. Poor alignment and integration: 
THE  ACT 

Local roads and state highways 

Roading, walking and cycling 

Roads and public transport 

Local and regional objectives 

Transport and land use planning 
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Leads to: 

high transaction costs and delays in agreeing and implementing improvements 

less than ideal solutions 

sequencing may not be ideal 

transport that is not well matched with high level priorities 
INFORMATION 
Contributing factors: 

fragmentation of responsibilities 

programming doesn’t reflect fully reflect regional transport objectives 
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weak mechanisms to deliver on regional planning 
 
 

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PROBLEM DEFINITION – initial thoughts 
 
 2. Constaints on capability 
THE  ACT 

Difficulty in attracting and retaining suitable staff 

Technical dimensions: eg modelling and data analysis 
Leads to: 

poor customer service 

constraints in transport planning at the local level 
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difficulty in meeting planning and funding obligations 
Contributing factors: 

Small scale of existing units 
 
INFORMATION 
 
 
RELEASED 
 
 
 

OFFICIAL 
 
 


STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES 

What would good transport governance, planning and service delivery mean 

What’s their relative importance?
ACT 
 
THE  
Generic heading 
Objectives 
Strategic context 
Clear outcomes for regional and local transport 
Effectiveness 
Transport supports regional and local objectives 
Roading and public transport developments deliver improved user outcomes 
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Efficiency 
Reduced transaction costs in decision making 
Improved cost effectiveness of service delivery 
Financing 
Equitable and sustainable funding arrangements 
Funding arrangements are aligned with decision making 
Alignment 
Compliance with planning and funding requirements 
Roading and public transport decisions are aligned 
INFORMATION 
Effective multi-modal approaches 
Local road and state highway decisions are aligned 
Meet expected transport user service levels 
Risk and resilience 
Transport infrastructure and services are resilient 
Region has the human capital and technical capacity to manage transport 
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Community voice 
Appropriate governance to ensure the community continues to have a voice 

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DRAFT INVESTMENT OBJECTIVES 

What are the immediate objectives of any change? 

ACT 
If we achieved these, would be improve our achievement of strategic 
THE  
objectives? 
1. Improve alignment and integration between 
• programming and regional priorities 
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• programming and delivery 
 
2. Build local capability to manage transport planning and 
service delivery 
INFORMATION 
 
 
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OFFICIAL 


CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS 
 
• How else should be assess any options? 
THE  ACT 
 
1. Local voice 
• Is sufficient say given to local communities? 
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2. Effective governance 
3. Achievability 
• Realistically, can we get the agreement needed across the region 
INFORMATION 
• If any legislative change is required, is it plausibly forthcoming 
• Are there any hurdles to implementation eg costs, disruption of other 
processes? 
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OFFICIAL 

Document Outline