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2026 Annual General Meeting

The 2026 Annual General Meeting will be held on Sunday 15 November from 10am until 11.30am. Alongside the business of the AGM we will be providing the community with an update on the bus depot programme and the decisions from Wellington City Council's rain report and the broader plans for the Ōwhiro Catchment. Please save the date. More details around venue and agenda to come ...

Bus depot proposal moves to detailed business case

Greater Wellington Regional Council has voted 7 to 4 in favour of a recommendation from GWRC Officers to develop a Detailed Business Case on the development of a bus depot in South Wellington - including the option to develop the depot on land at the bottom of Landfill Road. Ōwhiro Bay Residents Association members attended the hearing and spoke in the public participation part of the meeting. In our submission, we reiterated our support for public transport infrastructure. However we...

Initial business case for bus depot received

OBRA continues to oppose the proposal by Greater Wellington Regional Council to develop a bus depot at the bottom of Landfill Road. We have received the Initial Business Case (IBC) the GC will consider at it's meeting on 1 October.Please let us know if you have any feedback on the IBC....

Rain event report and recommendations welcomed

Ōwhiro Bay Residents Association welcomed the decision made today by Wellington City Council's City Strategy and Development Committee. The Committee today considered the report into the 20 April Rain Event. Go to page 1881 to read the full report.  Please note there was a substantive amendment added to the report which included a range of initiatives designed to address the issues experienced in Newtown, Berhampore and Island Bay. We will share with you the full set of minutes w...

OBRA worried about possible Spicers Closure

You may have seen media reports of the closure of Spicers Landfill in Porirua. OBRA is concerned at the potential impact on Ōwhiro Bay due to increased traffic volumes (including large vehicles) and the impact on the agreed management plan for the Southern Landfill which would likely see it fill more quickly than planned. We worry that without good community oversight - we will end up with regionalisation by stealth. We have written to our local councillors Laurie Foon and Nureddin Ab...

Work begins on trailhead development

Work started on 31 August to develop a new trail starting from just north of Rarangi Way - see the map below. You may recall consultation on this proposal at the beginning of the year. You can see the trail route marked in red below. This is a Wellington City Council project and contractor Open Spaces has been contracted to deliver the project. They are likely to be on site for six months. Work on the entrance development is not part of this initial work. ...

Rain event meeting details

Our meeting with Wellington City Council and Greater Wellington Regional Council to discuss the 20 April rain event will be held at Ōwhiro Bay School, tomorrow Wednesday 8 July. The meeting will run from 6pm until 8pm. Please enter the school by the front door next to the office. ...

April Storm Recovery Meeting

Date: Saturday 6 June Time: 2pm-4pm Venue: Island Bay Presbyterian Church, 88 The Parade This meeting is for Wellington community members who have been affected by April's severe weather event. It will open with an address from the Mayor and then representatives from key organisations will answer your questions. There will be an opportunity to share your experiences and talk with experts from: Wellington City Council: emergency management, rates remission, welfare, navig...

Letter to GWRC: Bus Depot update

Thank you both for the meeting on Saturday 16 May 2026. It was great to hear from you and be able to raise concerns about the proposed bus depot.We thought we’d capture the key action points arising from the meeting to ensure they don’t get lost as the work progresses (this note captures the action points, not all of the various concerns that were raised by residents):There is a commitment by the Regional Council that no decision has been made on whether the Landfill Rd site will be used for...

Community Drop In - Trailhead Development

Wellington City Council is hosting a community drop in on the site of the proposed new trailhead development. The drop in will be held on Saturday 2 May between 2pm and 4pm. The drop in will be on the vacant site opposite 198 Happy Valley Road. Council staff will be on site to talk through the proposed development. ...

Submission to WCC - City Strategy and Delivery Committee

OBRA member Ali Forrest presented to the WCC - City Strategy and Delivery Committee meeting on 7 May 2026. Here is her submission. Introduction Thank you councillors for the opportunity to speak on organics collection and processing. I am speaking on behalf of Ōwhiro Bay Residents Association (OBRA). Our community is affected by all waste issues because we have the Southern Landfill in our midst. However, what Ōwhiro Bay wants, aligns with what all Wellingtonians have said in th...

Light Up for Matariki

Ōwhiro Bay Residents Association (OBRA) needs your help to celebrate Matariki 2024. If you live in Ōwhiro Bay (with an emphasis on the Parade) OBRA would love your help to make Matariki 2024 special.We are asking residents to pop up lights outside or in your windows for the week leading up Matariki, Monday 24 to Monday 1 July. We don't want you to go out and buy anything new - with sustainability in mind, please reuse old Christmas lights etc.On Friday 28 June the community will be invited to ...

Ōwhiro Bay Submission on Resource Consent for Landfill

Ōwhiro Bay Residents Association member Ali Forrest has spearheaded our work on the landfill extension process. If you're interested in making a submission, Ali's put together a guide to help you through the process. You can read it here....

Cr Foon Acknowledges Locals in Move to Zero Waste

Deputy Mayor and Paekawakawa/Southern Ward Councillor Laurie Foon has sent a "massive shout out to Ōwhiro Bay locals Angela (Wilson), Alison (Forrest) and Jess (Allen)" for the work they have done to help get the waste management strategy closer to reality. "It has taken a village of intelligence and a mighty push from the community to get us to this place. This is another big building block to getting us to the vision where our landfill is a taonga surrounded by native bush and birds that...

Ōwhiro Bay wind phone

Tucked away on Wellington's south coast, a telephone booth is providing the living a chance to call the dead.The wind telephone is not connected to anything, but is meant as a one-way communication so people can dial the number of a loved one who has passed away and have a conversation with them.Read more on Stuff. This story was originally published in March 2016. ...