Annual Plan 2022 – 2023 adopted

Published on 30 June 2022

On 29 June, Council adopted the Annual Plan 2022 – 2023, following a community-wide consultation during April and May. Thank you for making a submission and sharing your views.

We received close to 700 submissions, providing us with valuable feedback on what we were proposing and helping to guide our decision making.

From the options we presented, 79% of feedback agreed with our preference for ‘Option 1.’

This will see a more rapid delivery of our commitment to repair Fergusson Drive; we’ll see the H2O Xtream upgrade through over the coming two years; and we’ll complete only the seismic strengthening of the Civic Centre, deferring the remaining upgrade a few more years.

Below is the summary of feedback we received, along with our decisions on each of them. Responses to each individual submission will be emailed out in early July.

For the full agenda and minutes from Council deliberations, go to our Meetings & Minutes page.

Fergusson Drive

We were fixing the road over ten years—we’re now going to do it in five.

H2O Xtream upgrade

We’re going to complete the upgrade in one stage over the next two years.

We received a total of 693 responses in our April/May 2022 consultation. 548 responses (79%) favoured completing the upgrade in one go, while 82 responses (12%) were in support of taking a two-stage approach. The rest either ignored the question or didn’t support either option.

Civic centre upgrade

We’re going to complete the upgrade in two stages, the first running over this financial year which will seismically strengthen the building. The wider refurbishment and expansion upgrade (Stage 2) will be deferred to 2027 – 2029. We’ll consult with you again before we confirm, as costs may change between now and 2027.

Dog park

We’re not going to introduce a dog park. We carefully considered the feedback alongside the long and short term financial considerations and decided not to go ahead with a dog park in 2022 – 2023.

Out of our 693 responses, 406 (59%) were not in favour of a dog park. 280 responses (40%) favoured establishing a dog park with 63% of those preferring the 8,000 m2 option.

But we recognise there is support in the community for a dog park, and we’ve discussed reconsidering the establishment of a dog park during the next Long Term Plan development.

Fees and charges

We’re going to adopt the fees and charges for 2022 – 2023.

You can read the Annual Plan 2022 – 2023 at upperhuttcity.com/ap.

As we look to the year ahead, it’s important to note that we’re still investing heavily in our growing community, and we’re looking forward to the progression of several projects over the coming 12 months.