Upper Hutt Residents United Coalition

Upper Hutt Residents United Coalition Upper Hutt Residents united Coaltion

15/08/2026

Opotiki Maori Ward councillor only one to oppose head start proposal
Keno said she had considered feedback received through Ōpōtiki District Council’s online survey, conversations with the community and the 369-signature petition presented at the August 4 meeting at which the decision was made.
“What I heard was that people did not want amalgamation. Some even said, ‘give the crown the middle finger’, but if we were forced into it there was support for an Eastern Bay of Plenty model.
“That feedback mattered to me.”
Keno said she struggled with the “rushed process” councils were forced into by central government, which held no certainty that proposals would be accepted.
“My ‘No’ vote was about saying that decisions this important need time, proper information and genuine community engagement. If reform is going to happen, I believe it needs to be done with our communities, not to them.”
Local Government Minister Simon Watts and RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop this week confirmed 18 Head Start proposals had been received.
“Head Start was set up because many local councils told us there was a desire to get on with simplifying and streamlining local government in light of the government’s wider planning reforms,” Mr Bishop said.
·
Chris Bishop and Simon Watts need to be sacked they lied and it amounts to consitiuional organised gang standover tatics with threat to harm local ratepayers and local councils. Now that they have forced councils to come up with head start proposals and they are aware that their backstop will be an election issue possibly a major election issue along with their water"done well" take over of council water assets and rate funding for water the say only voluntary and the councils asked us to in light of simplyfying local government in line with governments wider planning reforms RMA reform and Fast track conscenting and getting rid of enviromental safe guards through regional council. In Wellington we need to ask why Laban, Fran Wilde, Baker and Little pushed their councils and rate payers into it, when it was voluntary? Who did they represent or was it jack up by them collective and the political party they have been associated with. They all will need to answer the question going into election as will National and Labour regarding policy on backstop.

11/08/2026

To all who supported the petition to UH Mayor and council please see below acknowledgement regarding the Petition and the outcome of councils consideration of the Head start proposal
Thanks to all for your support and our council for considering our petition

Outcome of Council consideration – Wellington Region Head Start Proposal

Kia ora Teresa
Thank you for presenting the petition titled Like Upper Hutt, Keep It Local – Oppose Amalgamation – Petition to the Upper Hutt City Council at the Council meeting held on 5 August 2026.
Council formally received the petition, which contained 365 recorded supporter entries.

At the same meeting, Council considered the Wellington Region Head Start Proposal and resolved that Upper Hutt City Council:
does not agree to submit a proposal to the Head Start process;
does not approve Upper Hutt City Council's participation in, or the inclusion of Upper Hutt City within, the Wellington Region Head Start Proposal;

requests that any proposal submitted through the regional process include only those territorial authorities whose councils have formally resolved to approve it;

authorises the Mayor to represent and advocate Council's position at the Wellington Regional Mayoral Forum; and
remains willing to work collaboratively with other councils on regional and subregional matters, including shared-service opportunities.


Thank you for the work involved in preparing and presenting the petition, and for bringing the views of its supporters to Council's attention.



Ngā mihi
Kate

Kate Thomson

​​​​Te Tumu Whakarae Whakakapi | Acting Chief Executive

11/08/2026

Watts said Head Start was "completely voluntary" and councils showed they were up for it with their proposals.
He said councils wanted a fast process, and that is what they got.
"We gave them that and as a result we've got some pretty comprehensive proposals on the table. We're going to work through those," Watts said.
"But I think it's pretty important to show that actually we've got councils and leadership out there that say we can do things more efficiently.

Congratulations again to Upper Hutt City Council who decided that Head start was a voluntary process and agreed not to go in with other Wellington councils. Now we can negotiate our postion free from the threat(voluntary as it was) to come up with a proposal or not or face backstop imposed by government.

Other councils as I have said sized the opportunity central government gave them to take their ratepayers into a head start proposal apparently as watts says" councils wanted a fast process and that is what they got" So their rate payers now know who is responsible for their head start proposal it is not government but their respective councils, Mayors and councillors who voted for it.

We need to ask who was lead council in promoting a Wellington regional council head start proposal and why did South Waiarapa opt to go with Wellington rather than the other Waiarapa councils. These questions are important just as the question to Watts Bishop and National government coaltion if after they are going to force amalgamation on Upper Hutt by their"backstop" proposal and what is the Labour Party's policy on imposing backstop on councils that sais Thanks but not thanks, we need more assurances for our ratepayers of the savings and representaion in amalgamation.
Whose playing who?

09/08/2026

We forget history at our peril. I encourage everyone who oppose Wellington region amalgamation, inclusive of Wairarapa residents, to dust off the story of the last amalgamation attempt by the Wellington Regional council, and who was on the Wellington Regional council then and who was the Chair. We need to ask are they involved this time and if so where and at what place of influence. If in a leadership postion are they making decisions in the best interest of their ratepayers or is there another compelling motivation.

08/08/2026

An Amalgamation Fable to read at the table (none of its fact but nothing new in that)
Penny and I Mary went out to dinner last week and there were quite a few reserved tables we were not sure about what table was reserved for us. This was soon sorted when Mr Big and the Cookie, arrived they said come to our table we are over this way. We weren’t sure if it was polite or appropriate to join them at the table it seemed like they had already order and there was only one other place setting. But it apparently wasn’t a problem they had order for everyone and were waiting for Henny and Nan to join them. Nan had a longer journey to come to dinner and a few roadblocks to deal with on the way but none a woman of her experience couldn’t manoeuvre, and it was important to her to get a seat at the table. Henny was doing an interviewed with Kit, they were congratulating themselves on how easily they had manipulated their other dinner guests by turning a question into an answer and making them think that it was agreed, to plan a meal of spinach and leaks. When half those they asked agreed they went ahead and got started on the menu although they had no idea where, was the venue. No one dared to say we don’t want spinach with leaks because they were having such a good time high fiving each other and it seem unkind to burst their bubble. We sat down a little hesitant but soon relaxed, we were welcome and with friends and everyone had a place at the table. Soon Nan arrived then Henny he was waving and high fiving everyone, he was popular or it seemed like he was. Two other friends were there to eat but they decided to book another table to manage their menu themselves, but they might have to come to the top table even if by press gang if Kit and his crew were not happy with two at a table, it might be too few.
We started dinner Mr Big order the first course as he had plenty of experience in negotiating a good deal. We had hoped to order our own but again not polite to say. Nan and Cookie teamed up to order the second course we talked a bit between courses nothing too serious just an initial breaking the ice kind of talk. Mr Big led the conversation deferring at times to Henny who had some key points to add to the table talk this was responded to positively by Nan and Cookie. We were not sure if we should break into the conversation as it seemed the others had a handle on what we needed to discuss, even though we had some knew information we wanted to add we just nodded in the right places. It was just before dessert that the conversation became serious the four of them started talking about the serious matter of table management and the problem when other parties wanted to manage the own table, it became a bit tense when we tried to suggest that if it was our table then couldn’t we set it. We were benevolently reminded that the table might be ours, but the restaurant had an owner who would deal with customers who took the liberty of suggesting they oversee the table when the top table had places for many. So, we held our peace. Just before coffee, that Nan order for us all, long blacks for everyone, the other four told us about their plan to secure this table for the next time we came they acknowledge that they would have to check it out with the owner but pretty sure he would come to the table because what he mostly wanted was everyone at the table where they were easier to manage with a limited menu. At this point we thought we must say we were not having a good time we hadn’t liked the food, and the coffee was too strong. We would prefer to order our own food next time and we liked tea after dinner. We were not trying to be rude, but it would be hard to come back to the table if we didn’t. The others were gracious and said they would have a word with the owner and ask if he could add a few more items to the menu so we could choose our own next time. The host thought that might get in the way but as long as we knew that whatever happened they were expecting us to join them at the table or the owner might not give them a table at the top and that could hurt them a lot because given their prestige they wanted recognition that even if they were short on time they wouldn’t step out of line doing what they were told was fine. We politely agreed to wait for the owner to come back to us but were not sure if we would still have a place at the table or we might be required to wait on it instead. We made our goodbyes and the others left quickly they had important business to attend to. We were just heading out when we were called back and were handed the bill, we thought it was our share but turned out to be for everyone. We left reflecting that a meal with a limited menu at the top table doesn’t come cheap.

08/08/2026

If You Like Upper Hutt and want to keep it local and oppose being dragged into a super city amalgamation forced on Upper Hutt be government and other regions councils then join the fight.
1) Tell National government Upper Hutt residents will make this an election issue in coming election
2) Boycott Wellington city, Lower Hutt, Porirua, shop in UpperHutt or on line.
3)Agitate for UHCC to get on and refresh main street in accord with the plan that was decided, on how to do this, that's on hold.AND spend our rates on our City before it is taken from us by Stealth of other councils.
4)Join a residents coaltion to oppose Amalgamation, monitor Tiaki Wai chargers, Oppose financial restriction of water by vulumetric water metering ( privitization of our water)
6)Lobby our Local MP to support Upper Hutt's right to not have amalgamation imposed by other councils.
7) Consider legal action??
😎 And if we do have our assets and rates funding taken by approval of government of a Super City then rally against Little, Laban, Baker and Wilde being Mayor and vote for Peri Zee.
Time to show them what Upper Hutt is made of.

26/07/2026

If the Leaked news is correct and Upper Hutt council will be asking other councils in region to leave us out of the proposal then I say we Upper Hutt residents have your back.

What is needed is an adult conversation without the threat of if you don't we will do it to you by central government (when they can't under current legislation and probaly difficult to get legislation to carry out their childish threat) I believe the 9th August time frame was a Chris Bishop brain fade that he committed the minister Watts to and who then had to go along with. Councils have been iresponsible in trying to come up with proposals to meet the imposed government time frame.Congratulations to our Mayor Peri and our council if they are saying No ,thankyou ,to other councils in the region please don't include us in your amalgamation propsal. As a community what we need to ask in any amalgamation propsal is What Is In It For Us? Currently the numbers are not stacking up and the answer is, very little. Hutt city and Upper Hutt already share some services it "may" be of benefit to develop more but it doesn't have to be a full merger. Central government need to back off no matter what they try to make us think any contract for amalgamation would be between the interesed parties to the contract central government isn't a party to any proposed contract. They don't own the accumulated assets or the rate funding , their role is to consider the benefits to the owners of the council area ' the residents", and protect our interests in any amalgamation not threaten us.

20/07/2026

Some interesting comments in todays post paper.
Chris Bishop RMA reform minister (and minister who put amalgamation/reorganisation of local government time frame of August 9th or "it will be done to local government) said that it was crucial that the new bills introduced some "tension" into the system to make it harder for councils to regulate develoment. He wants the RMA reform done before Parliament rises in September for the election.
August amalgamation plans September RMA done and dusted??

An aside he wants commercial vegetable growing to have primacy in the system, to feed not only NZ but the World.. Is he hopeful that Hutt city can revert back to market gardens, too?

Ken Laben also in Post paper talking about amalgamation says as a region we can streamline the big stuff while protecting the local and that this can make the region the next economic and social powerhouse. Amalgamation will apparently streamline our housing development transport , combined our infrustructure needs.
My question to Ken but more importantly our Mayor and council.
How will amalgamation grow Upper Hutt's economy ? How will it enhance our CBD and shopping and bring people to Upper Hutt to shop. How will new roading, and transport bring people into Upper Hutt to make use of our facilities our sports grounds.
What effect will the ammendment to RMA have on our river and our regional parks.
Do you have these and similar questions come to meeting tonight at King Lion Hall King street 7:30 to discuss what answers we want about amalgamation before our councils endorses any proposal. And to form a group to monitor our water services delivered by Tiaki Wai.

12/07/2026

$185 million upwards for amalgamation and that is just Wellington City according to today's post paper. And apparently the preferred amalgamation is Wellington Porirua Hutt city and Upper Hutt. Community boards can be decided " after" amalgamation, and the benefit is long term infrastructure planning.
What infrastructure?? Not water pipes that is the job now of Tiaki Wai. Tunnels at Mt Victoria and basin reserve upgrade?? Petone and Grenada link to support Hutt city Porirua Wellington economic growth. What say Upper Hutt do you support your accumulated assets and rate funding being amalgamated, at your cost, to support the economic growth and infrastructure costs of the other Wellington councils. Ask your mayor and councilors what infrastructure costs have Upper Hutt. How do we save on them through amalgamation and what is our projected economic growth compared with not amalgamating. Then ask how our interests will be protected, our assets and rates funding secured for Upper Hutt's benefit, and what will our representation be and look like by way of a community board or similar. And by the way does, Upper Hutt support a takeover by amalgamation. Keep Tuesday 21st July free and come to discuss amalgamation and Tiak Wai at public meeting King Lion Hall 7:30pm.

09/07/2026

Mayor of Hut City Ken Laben has made public a proposal he believes answers the issues that Hutt City rate payers are concerned about in a reorganised or amalgamation of the councils of the Wellington region, part of his proposal is:

"Marked on existing city council boundaries, Wellington City’s 14-strong community council – and the four members of their counterparts in Porirua, Kāpiti Coast or Upper Hutt – would be in charge of local parks, libraries and issuing community grants, running on funds distributed by the unitary authority based on a formula".

This follows the major part of the proposal where by all the Wellington regions rates are put into the hands of one regional authority and manged by one CEO.

This propsal confirms that in any reorganisation or amalgamation Upper Hutt City will be gutted of its rates funding and for the generated rates and accummulated assests to be managed by a "regional authority with one regional Mayor" where Upper Hutts representation is "two". Then for any "nice to haves" the kind that make citys the place people want to live in and enjoy after work and on weekends it will need to stand in line and make a case for funding or the community would need to raise its own funding seperate from rates.

This will not in anyway decrease the rates we pay it will just mean we help to pay for "infrustrutue " across the whole region with Wellington city and hutt city representatives having a major say due to its representation of a combined 11 members where the rates funding is spent. There is no guarntee that Upper Hutt will be fairly represented or our needs or wants would ever get a fair hearing in such a reorganisation. BUT our rates and assets will help to fund and secure bigger loans for so described infrustructure costs. Given that water assets and infrustructure are now in the hands of Tiaki Wai what infrustructure will need funding by an amalgamated council.
Can we expect combined council rates to go to projects like Wellington and Hutt City road of significance that has already cost tax payers 25 million on consultants and contractors to scope two tunnels to "airport" in Wellington and an link road from Grenda to Petone both benefitting Wellington city and Hutt City. But of insignificance to Upper Hutt residents.
While this is just a proposal by Hutt City Mayor it is indication of discussion that are taking place at "Mayoral Forum" and need oppostion now if Upper Hutt City rates current and future and assets are to be secured for Upper Hutt residents.

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