Wellington protests: Evening commuters to be most affected

Metlink is warning that Wellington commuters going out of the city on Friday will be the most affected by road closures and rerouted bus routes because of political protests around Parliament.

Hill Street between Molesworth and Aitken Streets and Guildford Terrace was closed just before midnight Tuesday, as was Kate Sheppard Place.

Meanwhile, the Lambton Quay and Bowen Street intersection and Bunny Street near the bus depot was restricted to buses only.

The closures, which are right by Wellington's train station and largest bus exchange, are expected to cause some disruption for commuters with stops moved, and routes changed.

Police said they wanted to manage traffic and access to Parliament ahead of the planned protests, which includes a march from Civic Square to Parliament on Thursday.

The temporary closures are expected to lift just after midnight on Friday, police said.

Metlink public transport senior operations manager Matthew Chote told Morning Report a small number of buses have been rerouted.

"In that precinct that's closed, there's three stops on Molesworth Street and a couple that are adjacent, so a total of five that are closed [and] we cannot use.

"We're taking our buses on a different route through that several hundred metres of road there."

Chote said evening commuters during peak times out of the city would be the most affected but he did not expect huge disruption.

"It will mostly affect, in terms of large numbers, the evening peak.

"If you're coming in [for] your daily commute ... you would be dropped somewhere else nearby and have [to] walk, not using Molesworth Street.

"But primarily it will be an afternoon peak where you'll be rerouted and not be picked up on Molesworth Street."

But Chote said residents on the affected streets would still have access.

Central Wellington endured heavy disruption in last February after anti-mandate protesters set up camp outside parliament for nearly a month.

That was still fresh in his memory, Chote said.

"We certainly haven't forgotten February of last year ... it was a massive disruption [but] protests in of themselves are not unusual and contingencies around protests, or in fact, street parades, even camping for our university students, often take that route near that precinct.

"We do on, reasonably frequent occasions, have to deal with buses and a little bit of disruption through there.

Wellington District Commander acting superintendent Wade Jennings told Morning Report police did not yet know how many people would be at the protests.

"We'll probably have a better indication by the end of today on exact numbers as the convoy starts to move down the country," he said.

Jennings said police were in contact with the protesters, which included the Freedom Rights Coalition, the Convoy Coalition, the Stop Co-Governance and Pōneke Anti-Fascist Coalition, which said it was counter-protesting.

"All of [them] have signalled their intention to demonstrate at Parliament grounds and some of them are engaging very well with us ... others less so," Jennings said.

However, Pōneke Anti-Fascist Coalition said it was not in contact with police and did not expect to be in conflict with the police presence.

So far indications suggest that the protesters will behave lawfully, he said.

"They intend to just come [to Wellington], protest and leave, we're hopeful that will happen because peaceful protesting is allowed ... but we have got contingencies in place in case that changes.

Jennings said police had set up fencing and specific entry points into parliament where officers will be able to ensure tents or large structures were not being carried in.

There would also be signs stating what was allowed into the grounds and that Parliament closes at 6pm.

Wellington deputy mayor Laurie Foon said lessons were learnt from last year's Parliament occupation.

Foon said she was not expecting trouble but the road closures would help authorities have some control over the impact of the protest.

"It's a valuable part of our democracy. We agree with freedom of speech so we need to enable [that] to happen in a safe way. The process that we're going through at the moment is to keep the protesters safe, keep the city safe and keep the city moving as best as we can," Foon said.

Cafe and catering firm owner Irene Liu said she thought the street closures were an overreaction that would impact already struggling businesses.

She said disruptions to the area seemed neverending.

"I'm just worried because it's going to be quiet, you can see that it's quiet and also the letter we received from police to avoid the area, its not going to help at all," Liu said.

Backbencher pub owner Alistair Boyce said closing the streets around his business was an overreaction.

Research librarian Chris Anderson said concrete bollards at Parliament's Molesworth Street gates were a stark reminder of the parliament protests which descended into chaos last year.

He said he initially supported the police taking a 'softly, softly' approach with anti-mandate protesters but as the situation developed he realised they should have responded sooner.

He didn't feel inconvenienced by having to wind his way through "a small maze of barriers" on his way to work, he said.

"I think we saw that things can get out of hand pretty quickly. People, unfortunately, can get violent quite quickly as well so I think it's a good thing security wise,"