Our Story
- NZ Empowered
- Jul 11, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: Feb 21
We are Kate and Paul, with Luey our dog, and on the 14th April 2024 we sat in our lounge discussing the comments we had seen on Facebook regarding the potential rates increase in Upper Hutt. We were not great facebook users and to this day we are not sure why we logged on as it started us on a path well outside our comfort zone. In fact as we hardly ever used facebook our login was created for our dog who needed a facebook account to attend puppy school. Go figure..
When we started to read the comments and became aware of the massive pending rates increase, we were shocked and concerned. Not just for ourselves but the flow on effect to many in the community…
Without sounding negative… We have never really had a good relationship with our Council, and over the years we have tried to get them to see sense over numerous things.
After a couple of drinks, for courage, we did something we never would have thought we would do….We started a petition….We had no idea where it would lead or if we would get any interest? What would people think? And how on earth would these 2 people who have minimal social circle of people, due to one of us having a medical condition that snuffed out our social circle, manage to make a difference.
On the 18th April we meet with Mayor Guppy on other issues that we had bought to his attention prior to even learning about the LTP or Rates increases. Prior to that meeting, Paul respected Guppy… Once he meet with him and following the meeting he began to loose trust and confidence in our Mayor.
On the 23rd April we went to the first LTP Let’s Korero meeting at the Cossie Club in Upper Hutt….This was well outside our comfort zone to say the least…
We brought to Mayor Guppy’s attention many issues we were finding with the LTP consultation information… We remember standing around a table upstairs and Guppy was dumbfounded, to the point he finally wanted us to send him an email regarding the issues as he had no answers either…. We never got answers back from Mayor Guppy.
We felt like such fish out of water, and bitten of more than we could chew and started to doubt ourselves.
The Mayor was being chummy with people and they were chatting with him. So we were surprised when the meeting started and we bought up the Rates increases the atmosphere in the room changed in an instant. It went from general chit chat and banter to complete disgust and if there were pitch forks available we are sure they would have been out. This set our mind at rest that we were in a room with mostly like minded people and from there we bought forward a lot of the concerns we had heard and read on Facebook.
The following day on the 24th April we sent an email with questions to the council, after initially having to prompt the council CEO for a response on the 8th May (After the initial consultation period closed) we then got a reply. This reply raised more questions and on asking more questions we received this email back
Not until we looked further we learnt that this breached the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 with respect to the 20 working days they have to respond to a request.
We have commented lots on Facebook .. and many Community sites…. not something we were familiar with or confident and we had many sleepiness nights on sticking ourselves out with our comments. We felt that we needed to provide the facts to allow our community, as much as we could, to have information so they could make up their own minds.
We continued to receive questions on the Long Term Plan, and the Petition we were also approached by the Media and had an article which appeared in the Leader, which sadly is no longer published, and also in the Post….
We were learning as we were going and when we made boo boo's we always admitted if we had something wrong and gave credit to both councillors and community who had been able to clarify/help.
This picture and reference to this petition has appeared a few times.
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On the 3rd of May one day after the LTP was due we received a phone call form the reporter who had first approach us. We were both shocked and happy that what we had suggested back officially on the 24th April 2024 was being listened too.
Around this time we found out that the questions that we had sent through had also been where the $10m mistake was found from which got the extention to the consultation of the LTP.
We would then continue to fight for the answers not just ourselves but others had requested…..
We finally received this from our CEO:
This is someone we pay $321,000 per year, and from what we understand he is responsible for creating the LTP with his team…so would have expected he would have the answers.
On the 13th May we supported someone at their oral submission where she brought up about the Army and their rates, we promised her we would do what could and if we required we would use our Oral submission to continue her point…hear is what happened in brief. We have tried to continue to support our community with facts and information as best we can. But may we say, not always getting it right 😊
Then, before we could catch our breath, we were introduced to what we would call the start of an infestation of council when the Mayor and CEO sent a letter to Ministers on the Silverstream Spur development. These meetings seem to be on the dates when we were talking with the Mayor and CEO. The dates all married up as to why we believe we did not get responses and the LTP took a back burner.
On the 5th June 2024 we presented the Petition which we can tell you was a real headache….right down to finding out we needed to meet requirements of the UHCC Standing Orders of only 150 words for the petition itself amongst mis-information and unhelpfulness of council to give straight answers.
Here we were 2 people with 2225 signatures and we COULD NOT LET THEM DOWN…..WE HAD TO GIVE THEM THE JUSTICE AND RESPECT THEY DESEREVED.
Thankfully we did get some assistance and advice from one councillor and this was a lifesaver, as they directed us to exactly where in the standing orders and what we needed to do to successfully present the petition.
The night before we got 2 hours sleep and worked hard to decide which angle to present this petition. The UHCC showed minimal compassion over the time of the Petition…so we decided to go more down the path of discredit and show the public the type of people that had been elected and entrusted into represent them.
Carson was one major disappointment when he stated there were 225 signatures and asking the question "how many were rate payers". When according the UHCC Standing Orders section 17, there is no relevance to who signs the petition thus his question was not relevant. This concerned us as rates increases alo have a flow on effect to renters, businesses and Community organisations to name a few.
Since the 14th April we have been disgusted with what people have shared with us…..and it has made us feel both humbled but also not wanting to just exit stage left and not respect those that supported us, but our community with the Petition and sent us messages and supported us.
We have no idea and learning as we go…..but what we do know is sometimes you have to stick your neck out…..
Is it scary?….it is unknown?…..heck yeah….but here we are trying.
We have had to put up with a lot of backlash.
We have chosen to make our home and our life in Upper Hutt. We don’t want it ruined and controlled by a bunch of individuals, who have been voted in to listen to the community yet sit in their council offices and make whatever decisions they choose for the good of the council. We have learnt that council do not actually have as much power as we initially thought. It shows how green we were at the start of all this.
We all live in NZ and these people are voted in to listen and be our voices.... We don’t expect to change the world, not here for money, nor glory. We are here and in it to help where we can, give people a voice and join up Communities to be informed so they can choose. There are some councillors and Executive Team members who we have found work very hard for our community behind the scenes and some who we are stull waiting to see similar from.
Over the last year we have learnt there are a few Councillors that work hard and are happy to back the Community and will guide and help. Then there are those that we believe do not read documents and have no real idea what they are doing. The ones that holiday when important things are on. Those that sit and say nothing. Those that recently broke their Oath. The Mayor who we have found with no disrespect but feel he leans on others in the Council, as others can answer what he can not.
If there is anyone out there who wishes to contribute to this site please get in touch and we can enable you to write and submit articles. This site is here to have your voices heard. So if you have something you wish to share flick us an email. Call us crazy but we have also started a Facebook Group for people to discuss ideas concerns around Upper Hutt.
