Wellington City Council’s latest annual plan threatens to stall Wellington’s bike lane rollout. This would be disastrous for the thousands of families who want to bike in Wellington but feel unsafe on our roads.
Protecting bike lanes is fantastic for families to have affordable, low pollution ways of getting from A to B. Stalling the bike lane rollout during a fuel crisis is wild. Especially because the Council declared a climate emergency seven years ago.
So, use my template to have your say. Click my (condensed) insta-submitter, add in your personal story and sign your name, then hit send. Easy.
If that doesn’t work, you can copy paste the submission below and tailor to your heart’s content. Do so on WCC’s website or by emailing annualplan@wcc.govt.nz.
Subject: Submission on the 2026 Annual Plan
Tēnā koe,
I would like to submit on the 2026 Annual Plan in favour of keeping our bike lane rollout. I oppose Option A, and would like to see Councillors vote for Option B: to continue the existing bike lane rollout plan.
[Tell them your story. Who are you, where do you live, why do you want bike lanes? Go ham.]
Cities built around safe bike lanes are the happiest cities in the world. It’s no wonder why. Bikes are fun as. Streets built for bikes keep kids safer and help families get around without being held hostage by petrol prices.
Wellington is a perfect city for biking – compact, gorgeous, and committed to climate action. E-bikes and cargo bikes are providing viable car replacements for everyone from older Wellingtonians to growing whānau. Even those on a hill!
They’re also incredibly affordable to maintain – far more than car lanes. The more people bike, the less maintenance burden the Council faces. Especially important in a potential rates capped environment.
With climate change on our doorstep, a fuel crisis raising the costs of everything, and central Government MIA, Council can step up and deliver affordable bike infrastructure at pace.
The Council has four years to halve the entire city’s emissions. And… uhh… transport is over half of Wellington’s annual pollution. Private cars make up a huge part of that. We won’t halve emissions unless our roads help people rapidly switch to bikes and public transport.
The problem is that our central city is missing substantial connecting lanes that would make biking viable for tens of thousands of Wellingtonians. Only when we fix these critical gaps will the network begin to shine.
If Councillors choose to keep funding bike lanes, our network can be completed and every Wellingtonian can save money on fuel. Taking fast action to provide affordable, safe bike connections will save people more money on petrol than any rates capping could.
However, if Councillors choose Option A, they will be choosing to make Wellington more unaffordable, harder to maintain, while failing on our carbon targets. Considering a majority of Wellington City Councillors were elected on a promise of continued climate action, this would be a serious broken promise.
Specifically, I would like the Council to:
Support Option B for the cycleway changes proposal – Keep the budget as agreed in the 2024—34 LTP Amendment.
Specifically, I want the Council to build the following promised connections as outlined by Cycle Wellington:
- Featherston-Hunter-Victoria-Brooklyn
- Lambton
- along the harbour Quays
- Courtenay-Dixon-Willis
- Bunny St to the waterfront
The council has a responsibility to keep people safe, deliver affordable infrastructure, and decarbonise Wellington City.
Thankfully besties, you already have a solution that delivers all three of those things! It’s called a bike lane.
Fund them.
Ngā mihi ki a koutou,
[Your name]
Submit by 10 May 2026 at wcc.nz/haveyoursay or emailing annualplan@wcc.govt.nz