Transit Tenant to appear at District Court at 2.15pm today.

Hearing room 3, 49 Balance Street, 4th floor, Courts entrance, Wellington.

Opus International Consultants Limited, as agents for Transit New Zealand and consequently the Crown, have applied for a possession order for a flat in the path of the proposed motorway extension in Wellington.

Of all the residents who were given "Notice of Termination" in May Alexander Douglas Wright is the only one who hasn't either been granted an extension or moved out before the 16th of August when the leases expired.

Wright, who has leased the property since March 2002, has pressed Opus and Transit and the Wellington City Council about mismanagement of properties in their charge in historic Tonks Avenue.

After finding somewhere new to live and asking to use the property in question as a studio on a month to month basis Wright was informed by Opus that the building is intended to be used as a site office.

Wright says:

"I reckon that Transit and their agents are discriminating against me because of my political views and public opposition to the proposed bypass since the mid nineties.
There are numerous empty properties, (which I have been offering to rent off them for years,) which would be suitable for use as a site office if need be."

"Transit and their agents have a track record of winding up tenancies, boarding up buildings and missing out on years of rental income whilst squandering money on ineffective security patrols, lights and alarm systems. In the meantime the empty buildings have deteriorated and have been vandalised."

"The whole by pass project is essentially a land grab by the current Council who have their own ideas about the shape and form of Wellington from the Northern Management Framework to the third largest "The Warehouse" store in the country being built next to the Airport, for which the by pass would effectively be a huge driveway. They dismiss any opposition to their singular vision as coming from fringe not-in-our-back-yarders."

"Looking after one's own back yard is simply thinking globally and acting locally."

"It is a shame that I have to appear in Court for the first (and hopefully the last) time in my life in order to stand and be counted in the David and Goliath-like struggle between local Wellingtonians and the destructive oil fueled international roading machine which our so called civic and business leaders seem to be wedded to."

Wright was a member of the Campaign for a Better City and is currently a trustee of the Community Building Trust, a member of the Thistle Hall management committee and the recently formed Transit Tenants Association. He supports the work being done by the Save Our Streets and Heartbeat Wellington collectives.

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