Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Did Andrew Little save Wellington Council?

Tell me something: does what’s just happened with the Golden Mile upgrade in Wellington restore your faith in the possibility that councils can actually be run properly?

Because that thing - I don’t know if you’ve been following it over the years - but the Golden Mile upgrade has been an albatross around the necks of Wellington business owners and ratepayers since probably about 2016.

It was always going to be too expensive, especially when it tripled in price. It was always going to kill businesses once construction started and cars were banned from driving on the Golden Mile.

And it was always going to be one of the most frustrating examples of a Labour-Green majority council, obsessed with its hatred of cars, forcing through its pet project despite howls of outrage from the public - who would end up paying for it in more ways than one.

This went on for years and years: the public saying “please don’t,” the council saying, “nah, we’re gonna.” It just went on and on.

Then Andrew Little arrived - the first good mayor since Kerry Prendergast left office in 2010 - and everything changed. Within six months, the Golden Mile project was dead.

Even councillors who had previously voted for it, like Ben McNulty, changed their votes and killed it off - presumably because that’s what a good leader does. They take people with them. They change people’s minds.

Andrew Little is like a new broom in that city. He’s killed off the most vexed and controversial project. He’s fired a warning shot at the consultants that he is not prepared to pay endless bills for a cast of thousands to tell him what two or three people could.

He’s forced council staff to cut back on ridiculously high budgets. He’s immediately reduced the infighting around the table. He’s the grown-up who has taken over after 15 years of the kids trying to run the place themselves.

For the first time in a very, very long time, Wellington City Council is not the worst council in the country.

It restores your faith, doesn’t it? All you need is a decent candidate to put their hand up, and even the worst-run place can actually be rescued.

Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and radio broadcaster who hosts Newstalk ZB's weekday Drive-Time Show – where this article was sourced.