Welcome to Otari-Wilton's Bush
Otari-Wilton's Bush is New Zealand's most significant native botanic gardens and Wellington's largest area of original native forest. It is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is free to enter. This website aims to provide you with all the information you need to appreciate this natural resource to its fullest.
OTARI-WILTON'S BUSH NEEDS YOUR HELP
Please take a little time to make two submissions to the Wellington City Council by 5pm, 18 May on the two proposals which will have a negative impact on Otari -Wilton’s Bush.
It is vital that the Council hears from as many citizens as possible. As they say, “the more noise, the more notice”. Noise as well as reason is needed now.
1. The Eco-City proposal is likely to lead to cutbacks over time in the current staffing and operations funding for Otari-Wilton’s Bush.Taking it out of Parks and Gardens in the Council will deprive it of the shared knowledge and services it currently enjoys.
The proposal is here: http://www.wellington.govt.nz/haveyoursay/publicinput/pdfs/2012-04ecocity-stmt.pdf
The ECO-City proposal is based on limited information and analysis. It will end up costing ratepayers more rather than less, and erode the current quality we enjoy not only at Otari-Wilton’s Bush but across all the city’s parks and reserves.
Further down this page you will find what we see is wrong with the proposal and the questions to which we need answers from the Council.
2. To add to this threat, the Long-term plan would chop out capital funding that was finally coming Otari Wilton’s Bush way. The Council invested in first, a long-term management plan, and second, a landscaping plan.
Our members have taken an active part in the consultation on these to gain upgrades of the landscaping for the upper botanic gardens, upgrading of the Information centre, and remodelling the Curator’s House so that it could provide a venue for education and a base for the reseachers who use Otari. These three improvements were in the WCC budgets for 2012-14. Now they have been put off for at least another 10 years. Please let the Council know that Otari should not go on the back burner any longer. At the very least, the landscaping for the upper botanic gardens should be completed.
You can see the summary of the long-term plan here: http://www.wellington.govt.nz/plans/annualplan/1222/pdfs/2012-05-longterm-summary.pdf - p. 26.
You can make a submission on- line, and orally. Also it is a idea good to copy your submission to ward councillors and the Mayor.
You can also make your views known through the Long Term Plan Council Hotline (04) 801 4205.
QUESTIONS OTARI-WILTON'S BUSH TRUST BOARD WANTS ANSWERS TO
Questions that the Otari Wilton’s Trust Board wasn’t anwers to.We are perturbed that the information we request form Council was not included as part of the original scoping of the options by the Zealandia working party group, since it means that a proper cost-benefit analysis is lacking in the Eco-city proposal.
1. We would like to have a copy of analysis which we understand is now being done on the real costs of shifting Otari and the Botanic gardens out of the Parks and Gardens department.
We would expect this analysis to include:
• the additional costs in monetary terms of operating Otari and the Botanic gardens in the new Eco-City arrangement (From the proposal, it looks like an increase in overheads, to cover the new costs of governance and the Eco-City CEO and management team, and costs in paying for services that are currently shared or available at less than commercial cost from the two botanic gardens being part of the core Wellington City Council Parks and Gardens). We need to see this analysis done separately for each garden.
• Additional costs for the current Parks and Gardens department if Otari and the Botanic gardens are removed.
• Costs in the loss of parks and gardens expertise.
• Costs in existing synergies, such as the apprenticeship scheme.
2. How is the WCC going to ensure that the Eco-City single management team has within it the experience of operation of large botanical gardens within it? This does not appear to have been costed in theEco-City proposal. Without that, both Otari and the Botanic Gardens will suffer.
3. What specific gains are clearly evident for Otari and the Botanic Gardens in the Eco-city model sthat cannot be achieved within the existing arrangements? We are unconvinced by those cited in the original report and the consultation document.
OTARI-WILTON'S BUSH UNDER THREAT
On Monday 16 April the Wellington City Council is to release its Long Term Plan and the proposal to incorporate Otari-Wilton's Bush into a new Council-owned charitable trust, ECO-City. Despite the attractive name, the Otari-Wilton's Bush Trust Board believes that this proposal is deeply flawed and is opposed to its adoption. The good news is that it is not a foregone conclusion and the Council really does want to hear what people think of it.
The Otari Wilton's Bush Trust Board's main concerns are:
ECO-City would include Otari-Wilton's Bush and the Botanic Gardens with Zealandia and the Zoo. Otari-Wilton's Bush and the Botanic Gardens are part of the Wellington commons. They should stay within the Council's direct control, like the Town Belt. They should not be taken out to operate at a distance from wider public governance.
Both Otari-Wilton's Bush and the Botanic Gardens are free, open to all to enjoy and learn, to recreate and picnic. Neither is a fee-paying attraction. Put together with two organsations that are paying attractions that must focus on earning revenue, we could find the funding for Otari-Wilton's Bush eroded over time with staffing and maintenance cut back as the funding will have to shoulder new costs of the Trust board, management, and shared operating costs.
The original proposal arose from work undertaken in the Zealandia Working Group, which you can read here: http://www.wellington.govt.nz/haveyoursay/meetings/committee/Strategy_and_Policy/2012/27Mar0915/agenda.html
Considerable risks are identified for the ECO-City option in this report which is the option presently favoured by the Council. Additionally, the report lacks full costings of the options. Its financial forecasts are only for Zealandia. The Trust Board believes that a full analysis of costs and forecasts would show a less rosy picture all round, including the loss of existing synergies within the Council's Parks and Reserves Department.
The Trust Board's preference is for Otari-Wilton's Bush to stay directly within the Wellington City Council's control, as part of its existing ecological attractions and recreations, and part of the City's commons.
If the ECO-City option does proceed, the Trust Board believes that the following safeguards would be needed to preserve Otari-Wilton's Bush in its present form:
Otari-Wilton's Bush staffing and operating costs should be maintained with a cap put on what can be charged to cover shared operation costs, including those for the ECO-City trust board and the proposed senior management group, and the funding for these new costs be added to the Otari-Wilton's Bush council funding transferred to the ECO-City trust.
Reinstatement of some of the capital funding removed from the Council's draft Long Term Plan, allowing at least for the upgrading of the main collections path and the visitor centre
Otari-Wilton's Bush operates separately with its own dedicated budget e.g. the Curator decides the use of staff and priority for collection and planting.
Otari-Wilton's Bush staff are not used in an ongoing way for other ECO-City organisations
The contract between the Council and ECO-City includes an undertaking that standards at Otari-Wilton's Bush will be maintained to at least the level they were at the time of transfer and that Otari-Wilton's Bush will return to Council control if an annual review of the quality of Otari-Wilton's Bush by the Otari-Witlon's Bush Trust and the Wellington Botanical Society shows any deterioration.
Otari-Wilton's Bush Trust and the Friends of the Botanic Garden each have one trustee on the ECO-City governance board
The ECO-City governanace board's decisions must be unanimous.
No charges are introduced for non-commercial use of Otari-Wilton's Bush.
Otari-Wilton's Bush Trust urges you to make a submission so that we can safeguard Otari-Wilton's Bush. Submissions need to be with the City Council by 18 May.
Visit the official Wellington City Council website here.(external link)
Otari Wilton's Bush Trust Annual General Meeting
Wednesday 9 May 7.15 pm, Otari-Wilton's Bush Information Centre, 160 Wilton Road.
Next page: About Otari-Wilton's Bush