TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS BOARD OF INQUIRY Basin Bridge Proposal HEARING at BASIN RESERVE, MT COOK, WELLINGTON on 5 May 2014 BOARD OF INQUIRY: Retired Environment and District Court Judge Gordon Whiting (Chairperson) James Baines (Board Member) David Collins (Board Member) David McMahon (Board Member) Page 5986 APPEARANCES <GORDON FRANK SANDERSON, affirmed [9.42 am] ........................ 5988 <HARRY RICKETTS, affirmed [9.42 am] .............................................. 5988 5 <DONALD NEELY, affirmed [9.42 am] ................................................... 5988 <JOHN ANDERSON, sworn [9.43 am] ..................................................... 5988 <MARTIN COLIN SNEDDEN, sworn [9.43 am] .................................... 5988 <PETER CLINTON, affirmed [9.43 am] .................................................. 5988 <EXAMINATION BY MS ANDERSON [9.49 am] ........................ 5990 10 <CROSS-EXAMINATION BY MR JONES [10.40 am] ................. 6009 <CROSS-EXAMINATION BY MS ANDERSON [11.32 am] ........ 6020 <CROSS-EXAMINATION BY MR SNEDDEN [11.38 am] .......... 6023 <CROSS-EXAMINATION BY DR SANDERSON [11.50 pm] ..... 6027 <CROSS-EXAMINATION BY MR JONES [12.15 pm] ................. 6037 15 <CROSS-EXAMINATION BY MS WEDDE [2.32 pm] ................. 6063 <RE-EXAMINATION BY MS ANDERSON [2.38 pm] ................. 6066 <CROSS-EXAMINATION BY MR JONES [2.50 pm] ................... 6070 <CROSS-EXAMINATION BY MS WEDDE [4.01 pm] ................. 6089 <CROSS-EXAMINATION BY MS ANDERSON [4.04 pm] ......... 6091 20 <CROSS-EXAMINATION BY MR JONES [4.12 pm] ................... 6094 <CROSS-EXAMINATION BY MS WEDDE [5.00 pm] ................. 6113 <THE WITNESSES WITHDREW [5.01 pm] .................................. 6114 Basin Reserve, Wellington 05.05.14 Page 5987 [9.38 am] CHAIRPERSON: Yes, good morning everybody. Welcome back. And 5 welcome to the array of witnesses on my right. All the witnesses relating to the topic on cricket. Thank you all for coming today. I know it’s not easy to get everyone together at the same time, but I do appreciate it. 10 What we’re doing this morning is we’re going to have what we call a contemporaneous witnessing or as they call it in Australia “hot tubbing”. Whereby we have all of the witnesses on a particular expert topic together at the same time and we have a set of topics that we’re going to go through where counsel have sorted out a batting order for 15 the questions that will be asked on that topic. [9.40 am] We will come to a topic; say the first topic, which is “Council, the 20 Trust and the Relationship with the Applicant”. The first person who is going to head off on that one is Mr Jones; he will get up and ask questions first. He will identify a witness that he is going to ask the question to and then he will ask that question to that particular witness. 25 When that witness is finished answering the question if any other of you wish to add something if you just simply move on and perhaps if you just sort of follow. If you wish to contradict anything then also you are entitled to do that at the same time. 30 It means that we have an interaction between the expert witnesses and it saves a lot of time because it means that you don’t have to have one witness with a whole lot of questions and then another witness, and then another witness, and each topic being gone over and over again. 35 Anyway, we will just take it quietly, we’ll be relaxed about it and we take it step by step. Now, also a number of you have prepared what we call opening statements. They all arrived on our desk this morning and we haven’t 40 had an opportunity of reading them all so I’m going to get each one of you who has made an opening statement to read it out. So the first thing we’ll have to do is to have each of the gentlemen sworn in, so Madam Registrar, if you could swear them in? 45 Basin Reserve, Wellington 05.05.14 Page 5988 <GORDON FRANK SANDERSON, affirmed [9.42 am] <HARRY RICKETTS, affirmed [9.42 am] 5 <DONALD NEELY, affirmed [9.42 am] <JOHN ANDERSON, sworn [9.43 am] <MARTIN COLIN SNEDDEN, sworn [9.43 am] 10 <PETER CLINTON, affirmed [9.43 am] CHAIRPERSON: Yes, thank you. Now, those of you who have given opening statements if you could simply – and we’ll start perhaps with 15 Dr Sanderson this end and then we can just do it one after the other as we go down the table. If you’ve got an opening statement if you could just, for the purposes of the record, say what your full name is and what your area of expertise is and then read your opening statement. 20 MR ……….: I don’t have an opening statement to be honest. CHAIRPERSON: Yes, well if you don’t have – that’s fine. If you don’t have an opening statement if you could for the record again, just state your name and just say that you haven’t got an opening statement. That’s 25 fine. MS WEDDE: Excuse me, sir. Just to clarify, Professor Sanderson does have one short supplementary statement that he may like to read on Friday. 30 [9.45 am] CHAIRPERSON: Oh, I see, well then that can be read as well at the same time. So that will save counsel having to introduce each of you, and you introduce yourselves and then I’ll ask Mr Jones to – I’ll identify 35 the topic that he’s going to start cross-examining on. At the end of each question I will indicate if anyone else wishes to add or say anything relating to the answer given by the other and then we will go through any other parties or their counsel who wish to ask questions on that same topic when Mr Jones is finished. So it is all pretty relatively 40 straightforward. So Professor Sanderson if you could start the ball rolling. DR SANDERSON: My full name is Gordon Frank Sanderson. I have a 45 supplementary statement which pertains to a fairly small aspect of my original evidence-in-chief. This supplementary evidence provides Basin Reserve, Wellington 05.05.14 Page 5989 further information regarding the potential for light to reflect off cars travelling on the proposed Basin Bridge and cause visual distraction to cricket players within the Basin Reserve. 5 As mentioned in my evidence-in-chief in paragraph 3.6 I consider that this may cause a transient visual distraction. However, I elaborate further as follows: (a) While a car windscreen or side window is made of glass it is not a 10 mirror and only a very small percentage, approximately 10 percent, of the light which strikes its surface is reflected. Any reflection will be further attenuated by the condition of the surface, a cleaner surface providing the greater reflection. 15 (b) Further, the surface of the side window or windscreen in a car or similar vehicle is generally curved. This has the effect of making it behave as a “convex mirror”. Light rays from the sun or any other light source will diverge when they strike the window and disperse in proportion to the distance of the observer from the window. 20 (c) I observe that a batsman at the southern end of the pitch will be at least 100 metres from the side window or windscreen. At this distance the dispersion effect will be considerable. Fielders who face the Bridge will generally be at a further distance where the dispersion effect would 25 be even greater. It is therefore my opinion that any reflection from cars on the Basin Bridge will be transient and highly attenuated. I conclude that the risk of visual distraction from this source is negligible. CHAIRPERSON: Yes, thank you, and if you could read your summary of 30 evidence or opening statement. DR SANDERSON: Certainly. MS WEDDE: Sorry, just to ensure we are not at cross purposes, 35 Professor Sanderson did not prepare a summary of evidence and his original evidence was already quite concise. CHAIRPERSON: Oh, so this is just his original evidence? 40 MS WEDDE: So what he has just read is his supplementary statement which was filed on Friday and in addition to that he has filed his evidence-in- chief and rebuttal evidence but he didn’t file a separate summary of evidence. 45 CHAIRPERSON: Yes, fine, thank you. Yes, very well, so we will move on to the next person. Basin Reserve, Wellington 05.05.14 Page 5990 DR RICKETTS: Hello, I am Professor Harry Ricketts from the English programme at Victoria University and I am a cricket enthusiast and a write and I am going to read you an eight line poem as my brief about 5 the Basin. CHAIRPERSON: Well, I can tell you, Professor, that will be a delight after listening to transport evidence for some weeks. 10 DR RICKETTS: So it is called - - - CHAIRPERSON: It is a lot better than looking at intersection capacities and volumes. 15 DR RICKETTS: Thank you. So it is “Wellington Basin Reserve, late summer 2014”. On the bank at the Basin the crowd applauds; cicadas click-click their castanets, 20 Listen to the money’s slow, withdrawing roar. On the bank at the Basin the crowd applauds. ‘ “Wellington is a city that’s dying”, says the man with cold snapper eyes. On the bank of the Basin the crowd applauds; 25 cicadas click-click their castanets. Thank you. CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, professor. Mr Neely. 30 MR NEELY: My name is Donald Owen Neely and I am providing evidence on behalf of the Basin Reserve Trust. MS JONES: Mr Neely had a couple of questions to his evidence-in-chief.