What we do
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Governance structure
Upper Hutt City Council is the Local Government Authority in Upper Hutt. It is governed by a group of Elected Members who are individuals in the community that are elected by the public to make decisions on behalf of the Upper Hutt Community.
The Elected Members are comprised of the Mayor and ten Councillors.
Separate to the Council are the Council officers, or staff. The officers are responsible for helping to both inform the Elected Members to aid their decision making, and complete work and projects as a result of the decisions made by the Elected Members. The officers are headed up by the Executive Leadership Team, which is comprised of the Chief Executive, and six Directors.
What is Council responsible for?
Local government is separate to Central government. While Central government tend to look after issues that affect the majority of New Zealanders, Local government looks after issues that affect local people.
Upper Hutt City Council is responsible for a wide range of activities in Upper Hutt, these are delivered by the following business groups:
Community Services Group: The group is council’s conduit into the community for supporting and working with the community to ensure a safe, resilient, connected, economically thriving, engaged, healthy and active community. This group is responsible for libraries, pools, recreation services, economic development, activation, and open spaces and facilities. The community partnerships business unit facilitates and delivers initiatives that strengthen the community.
Operations Group: The focus of this group is service delivery for the community. This group is responsible for Infrastructure, including water, asset management, land transport, waste and sustainability, roading, emergency management, and Compliance, including environmental health, alcohol licensing, parking enforcement and animal management. This group is also responsible for customer services, resource consents and compliance, and building control services.
Engagement, Strategy and Planning Services Group: The focus of this group is engagement and strategy and to provide advice and support across the organisation and to the chief executive, executive leadership team, Mayor and Councillors. This group is responsible for governance, policy, strategy, corporate planning and urban and rural strategy and planning.
Corporate Services Group: This group is responsible for digital information services, finance, risk and assurance and legal services.
Chief Executives Group: This group includes the performance and capability team, the executive assistant to the corporate group, the executive assistant to the mayor, the chief advisor and Kaitakawaenga Kaupapa Māori.
Council and committee meetings
Decisions are made at Council and Committee Meetings, through a number of different committees. You can find out more about the Committees, their membership, structure, standing orders and how they work or contact the Democratic Services Officers at governance@uhcc.govt.nz or 04 528 2652. The Council meeting calendar is also available online.
As a members of the public, you are encouraged to attend public meetings to listen and/or share your views to help shape the decision making process. There is a public forum at the beginning of most public meetings – this is your opportunity to address the Councillors regarding items on the agenda. Find out more about speaking at a public meeting.
Decision making process
For big decisions that will affect the community, Council will engage with the Upper Hutt community before making a decision. The level of engagement required is determined by the Council's Significance and Engagement Policy(PDF, 300KB) .
Every year, all Councils consult on either the Long Term Plan (LTP) or the Annual Plan. The LTP is Council’s 10 year plan that is reviewed every three years, and producing the LTP is the most critical piece of work that Council does. The Annual Plan is Council’s plan for the next 12 months.
