Upper Hutt Council 25/26 Annual Plan and Local Water Done Well Consultation.
- NZ Empowered
- Mar 17
- 8 min read
Updated: May 25
Annual Plan 25/26 Consultation | Local Water Done Well Consultation | Questions
Click on the blue underlined words to go to the links.
6th April 2025
Upper Hutt Council Annual Plan 25/26 and Local Water Consultation
For those of you who are wanting to put in a submission on the Annual Plan 25/26 and you haven't been able to get hold of a booklet like this yet here are the links to the consultation documents and a link to additional information if the booklet/document do not provide enough information.
Annual Plan and Supporting information
Page 11 - Kerbside Recycling
Page 12 - Schedule of Fees and Revenue Finance
Page 13 - Gambling Venues
Page 14 - Alcohol Bylaws
Local Water Done Well and supporting Information
Our Local Water Site - https://www.nzempowered.com/post/local-water-done-well
Highlighting indicative pricing based on Oct 2024 report.
Also here is the Council Agenda document from the 19/3/2025 with additional Information in it also. It has specific sections in it relating to the information areas:
Page 47 - Revenue and Financing
Page 80 - Gambling Venues Policy Review
Page 149 - Alcohol Licencing Subsidies.
Page 186 - Fees and Charges
Page 270 - Kerbside Recycling
One of the councillors has mentioned if you wish to submit orally as the Annual Plan and Local Water is in three parts, If you submit 3 separate submissions one for each part you should be able to speak for the 5 minutes allowed on each submission.
End date for submissions is 27th April 2025.
If you are unsure on anything contact a Councillor or the Mayor and ask questions. It's an election year, get to know and question your councillors.
As a side note: The Rates Finder page which the council provides does NOT include the Greater Wellington Regional Council Rates.
We do feel we need to apologise for our previous post, we may have jumped the gun a little. We were so frustrated with some of the answers and dismissals from the Council Executive team.
Rates
We are aware of the challenges that people have with the rates rises. We just want some further relief for those who are struggling with the increases in rates. We do want to give kudos to those in the council who have fought to reduce the rates to where it now sits at 15.78%.
Our concern for many is that the rates increases are affecting many in our community.
So with the smoke clearing and an apology out there, here is what we think might explain this better.
Wellington City council have managed to put on their site that houses have decreases on average 21.7%. They have also explained on the same page how rates are apportioned. A very good start to understand why more houses don’t really reduce the rates.
Why can UHCC not take this into account??
We have seen after our post that the CV’s for Upper Hutt are due later this year. What still stands though is that if the new CV’s were anywhere near the estimated values we have seen on www.qv.co.nz and that was applied to this years rates we would be looking at a 20%+ increase not a 15.78% increase. What will this mean for next years rates? Will the executive team dock the numbers again for the council to present to us, or have they only done it this year as an election smoke screen.. So many questions?
Local Water Done Well
We all can see in the documents that there are 2 options being consulted on in Upper Hutt. From what we have said, others in the community and Cr Carson, these are effectively the same. WCC have as far as we know presented 3 options for the community to consult on.
Why is it that UHCC could not provide any other options for us in the community to understand and consult on?
In addition to this the 2nd option around the status quo with Wellington Water is a required option according to the legislation so that was going to be there regardless.
Guess we are just wanting more relief for those struggling with rates. When those in the Exec team seem to be saying they can’t be bothered.
Thanks to those councillors who did ask questions and spoke up, it’s a shame that a lot of the answers and actions were either deflected or refused.
If you have questions, our advice would be to email all Councillors and Mayor or ring personally those you are thinking to vote for and see what you get. Let’s put them to the test.
They have their phone numbers on the website for a reason, it is an election year and even if you don't understand something do ring them.
Councillors Emails - https://www.nzempowered.com/post/complaints-about-councils
Councillors phone numbers and contacts –
Council Meeting 19th March 2025
A lot of people will be still hurting from last years Rates increases and the Long Term Plan..
We have just watched the Council meeting which discussed and adopted among other things the 25/26 Annual Plan and the Local Water Done Well Consultation Documents. This means the council needs to put out a annual plan due to many changes since the LTP last year and are required by law to consult on the future of water services.
We are putting together a more detailed understanding of points raised in the meeting but for now here are a few items. If you would like to check this page regularly we will be posting updates as information and answers come to hand..
It was asked if the rates figures at the previously stated 19.94% be added in as a reference in one of the graphs. , and the Executive team (Those on big bucks and are there to know this inside and out) seem to say that it's too hard. This was dissapointing. https://www.youtube.com/live/30gHRHTXd9M?t=3306s
It was asked which years CV's the proposed numbers are based off, older 2022 or current 2025? The answer was that the proposed numbers and proposed rates would be on the 2022 CV valuations not the current 2025 CV's which are considerably lower than the 2022 CV's. This is dissapointing as with lower CV's, we believe, this could have given some relief to many in the community. https://www.youtube.com/live/30gHRHTXd9M?t=3237s
Basically what they have done in regards to the CV/GV and rates % from what we can tell, is "smoked screened the fact that really the increase is higher by not working on the new CV/QV's. For example. A home with a CV/GV of 830K was $3391 then $4067 at 19.94% $3391 then $3926 at 15.78% if new CV/GV of 730k was $3122 then $3745 at 19.94% $3122 then $3615 at 15.78% From what we can see they have to keep the revenue at a certain bar so therefore to make the % look good they are leaving it at the older CV/GV. Therefore if they were working on the new CV/GV they would have to present the community with a 20+% increase instead. Still looking further into it but this is how we see it. It looks like there could be a slight relief for people.
Some other points were:
Dog Registrations (Many have been concerned over Unprovoked Dog attacks)
Fees and Charges
Alcohol Fees and Gambling Venues Policy
We will be updating this webpage over the next 24 hrs with more on this meeting and this will be posted on the website also for those without Facebook.
Being an election year, we suggest you contact our Councillors/Mayor directly and ask questions. See who will assist or be able to answer your concerns or questions. https://www.upperhutt.govt.nz/Home/Tabs/Council/Your-Council/About-Your-Council/Mayor-and-Councillors
Here is the link to the agenda for this Wednesday's Council meeting,19th March 2025. This includes the draft consultation on the Annual Plan 25/26 (including the proposed next rates increase number) and the Local Water Done Well consultation paper. Both of which we will be asked to submit and choose our preference in March 2025.
There is further information in the pdf but these 2 links are what will be initally provided to the community for consultation.
We have alerted a Councillor to an issue where the Local Water Done Well QR Code directs you to the 2022/2023 Annual Plan. The councillor will be raising this to get it resolved.
It will be interesting to see how Council will deal with people this year as we believe last year people felt dismissed and it was simply a tick in the box activity.
Questions we have so far :
Are we now not having a fixed water cost in our rates but one which is linked to our CV much like the rest of our rates?
Are this coming years rates increase and the numbers in this package based against Old CV’s or New CV’s?
Will it be made common knowledge that the 2 Local Water Done Well Options are effectively the same option, making it effectively one choice?
As Water and Water Meters will be on a lot of peoples minds we have tried to collate information which is hopefully useful to understand Local Water Done Well. https://www.nzempowered.com/post/local-water-done-well
We understand there is $500k set aside to do a business case for water meters, we believe this is a waste of time as the powers that be have already made up their minds, and could be used elsewhere.
There has been a few reports recently of Increased levels of dog attacks. Will the increases in the fees help to control more of these dogs and owners to reduce the harm caused?
The word Average wasn't added to till later on the rates increases last year and wasn't well explained. Last year the fixed water charges skewed the rates so the lower CV's were paying a much higher increase than others. (See Pic) We will do our best to understand this years rates and increases and endeavor to help anyone who wants to know more about their rates increases this year. https://www.nzempowered.com/post/upper-hutt-rates-not-set-at-19-93-in-year-1
Will it be made common knowledge that the 2 Local Water Done Well Options are effectively the same option, making it effectively one choice?
As Water and Water Meters will be on a lot of peoples minds we have tried to collate information which is hopefully useful to understand Local Water Done Well. https://www.nzempowered.com/post/local-water-done-well We understand there is $500k set aside to do a business case for water meters, we believe this is a waste of time as the powers that be have already made up their minds, and could be used elsewhere.
We have raised that the Kerbside Recycling Option 1 is not as transparent/clear as it could be. It states its fully funded and then that Minisrty for Environment is providing funds but then that it will cost ratepayers $3 per week.. It appears after talking with the Councillor for clarity that, as we assumed but it was not clearly stated, what is funded and what is being supplied by Minitry for Environment is for the inital setup and bins etc, then the ongoing costs are $3 per week.
One Councillor has indicated and said very strongly if they are not told and do not know then they are not able to try and assist to resolve the communities concerns.
We setup our facebook group to empower people and to allow us all to have a voice.. Please test this out.. Ring, Txt, Email Councillors/Mayor with your thoughts on the information and see who has their listening ears on in election year and replies. This needs to be done before Wednesday when its approved to go to print.
Our advice would be to email all Councillors and Mayor or ring personally those you are thinking to vote for and see what you get. Lets put them to the test. If you want to contact us we can pass them on also.
They have their phone numbers on the website for a reason, it is an election year and even if you don't understand something do ring them even after Wednesday.
Councillors Emails - https://www.nzempowered.com/post/complaints-about-councils
Click on the Blue Envelope to email all of them.
Councillors phone numbers and contacts - https://www.upperhutt.govt.nz/Home/Tabs/Council/Your-Council/About-Your-Council/Mayor-and-Councillors
