Wellington city council staffer posts tearful apology for Te Aro chargers, films it plugged into them

Transcript of a video Wellington City Council posted to Instagram on Tuesday night. It was pulled by Wednesday breakfast and back up by Wednesday smoko "for transparency". The speaker gives her name as Keera, Transport Futures.

"Guys. Guys. I never thought I'd have to make this video. deep breath Okay. So. A lot of you have seen the chargers. The EV chargers council put in the service lane behind Cuba Street in March, the ones with the green lights. And a lot of you have pointed out that no car has parked there. Ever. Not one. And I've been sitting with that. Honestly, I've been doing a lot of sitting."

"I want to be upfront. Nobody from the project team went down there before the install. There's a step. The kerb is, like, a step. There's a wheelie bin that's bolted. The wind comes through that lane at a speed that — look, the sparky, Reuben, shout out Reuben, Reuben said on day one, 'nobody's parking here, mate.' He said it again on smoko. He said it a third time packing up the van, and I said we'd circle back. I didn't circle back. That's on me. That's growth."

"And I know some of you are like, Keera, those cost sixty-one thousand dollars. And yeah. They did. And some of you are like, my Tiaki Wai direct debit bounced three weeks ago and nobody's rung me, and somehow this went through first time. I hear that. I'm not going to make excuses. pause The lane is also, technically, a loading zone, so if a car did get up the step it'd be towed, and that wasn't flagged, and that's a learning. We're all learning. Wellington's back to the size it was in 2017, so there are fewer cars every year to not park there, and I think that's a conversation."

"Legal has asked me to say the chargers are 'operational'. Which they are. They are so operational. They've been operational for eight months. I'm not the spokesperson right now, I'm just Keera, but the spokesperson's line is correct and I stand by it. Parking's free on weekends over the festive season, so if you want to come and see them you can park at the top of the lane for nothing and walk down. There's a step. I'll be there Saturday, doing the work. deep breath To my community, to the ratepayers of Te Aro, to Reuben: I am so sorry."

"Also, quick one, a few of you asked what the cable behind me is. I'm running this off the charger. Ring light, laptop, the heater. It's honestly the most use they've had, so, silver lining. Links below for my new course on accountability."