New faction will challenge ideologues, political class elites, on behalf of ratepayers

Wellington City Council is accused of using the “perilously unrealistic“ promise of extensive cycling lanes and cycle access routes as a “symbolic” appeal in order to attract at the local body elections later this year what a new electoral lobby describes as “ideologically- inclined” voters.

According to the newly formed Wellington First electoral lobby the council fixation on cycling will see swept away 600 CBD carparks in order to establish cycling only lanes.

This loss is in addition to the “at least” 900 CBD car parking building slots already lost due to earthquakes or the threat of them.

Wellington First also insists that the Wellington City Council intends to drive an already sanctioned official cycleway in the city’s relatively flat southern suburbs all the way through to the central city.

As a result of this the lobby claims that inner city peak time traffic already routinely stalled for “30 minutes” will be held up for even longer.

The lobby claims that activists have already “sabotaged” any prospect of speeding up access between the CBD and the southern suburbs by causing to be abandoned various major works at the Basin Reserve/Mt Victoria tunnel bottleneck.

The lobby says it intends to field a council slate at the local body elections in October

Contrary to what it describes as the climatist vote-courting “propaganda” put out by the council, cycling as commuter transport, is in fact only used by what it described as a “determined minority,” simply because of the capital’s hostile hilly layout, and trademark strong winds.

Wellington First reserved its harshest criticism for what it describes as the Wellington City Council’s blatant “cultural misappropriation.”

In hi-jacking this virtue-signalling code term, Wellington First explains that the council has “deliberately and misleadingly” sought to put Wellington in the same cycling framework as Copenhagen (pictured top).

In contrast to flat Copenhagen, New Zealand’s capital Wellington (pictured at bottom) adheres to a hill-girt bay and features narrow, twisting two-way streets that present extreme danger to cyclists.

Additionally, Wellington's average wind speed is 22 kph, while Copenhagen, is only half that at 12.9kph

Wellington First describes itself as a party and its mainstays are Bryan Weyburne and Digby Paape, both long term civic commercial figures.

Mr Paape is described as chairman of the action group.

Mr Weyburne is a former two term Wellington City Councillor who was responsible for founding the Rates Reform electorate faction which came to power in Wellington and its neighbouring territorial local authority, Lower Hutt City.

Wellington First appears to be a single issue group dedicated to countering what it describes as the move led by the City Council’s governing bloc to “covertly” pander to “ elitist ideological” voters and at the expense of ratepayers.

Messrs Weyburne and Paape of Wellington First, say that they will name their full council ticket soon.

They declined to divulge names at this stage.

Their immediate purpose they claim is to intercept and expose Wellington City Council’s underpinning and unstated electoral strategy.

They say that the council’s scheme is a subtle one.

It is to take advantage of a pervasive fear among citizens of being viewed as being unsympathetic to Green-leaning assertions, however “impractical or even dangerous” these claims might in the event be.

Wellington First has no connection with the New Zealand First Party which is in a Parliamentary governing coalition with the Green Party and the Labour Party.