Part A: Introduction
Consultation results – what people said
The following summarises how we consulted on Our 10-Year Plan 2018–28, the feedback we received and the decisions made by the Council following consultation.
How the Council engaged and consulted
The Council’s audited consultation document detailed Our 10-Year Plan's strategic priorities, proposals, options and key projects for which the Council sought public feedback. A detailed analysis of the consultation feedback received on the plan’s proposals and projects is available on our website page at www.wellington.govt.nz/ltpcommittee-6june.
Supporting information relating to the consultation document was also made available to the public to enable informed feedback to the Council. This information included financial statements, key strategies, development plans, Council services and performance measures.
The engagement and consultation programme occurred in three phases.
- Phase one: Early engagement and awareness raising on Our 10-Year Plan's strategic priorities and challenges facing the city took place between October 2017 and April 2018. Early engagement comprised community meetings; Māori, youth, and residents’ associations workshops and events; meetings with key stakeholders and advisory groups and an online survey between 19 March and 13 April 2018, supported by social media activities.
- Phase two: Formal consultation to gather public submissions on the consultation document proposals and projects took place between 15 April and 15 May 2018.
- Phase three: Oral hearings and forums for those who wished to support their submission with a spoken presentation were held between 22 May and 30 May 2018. A total of 158 individuals or organisations attended oral hearings or forums.
The responseTop
In phase one (building awareness), 393 people completed the series of questions and 97 signed up to receive information on the formal consultation.
In phase two (formal consultation), there were 16,553 visits to the consultation website from 12,174 users, 1481 consultation document downloads and 2051 submissions received (157 from organisations, 1894 from individuals and excluding any duplicate submissions).
Total submission volumes, comments and the submitter age (for example) indicate that a cross section of the city’s population participated in the consultation. Encouraging feedback from younger people was an objective of the consultation programme. While 19 to 30-year-olds make up 19 percent of Wellington's population, they accounted for 25 percent of submissions.
The consultation was promoted through a range of broadcast media, social media channels, events and campaigns.
What people saidTop
The strategic priorities
Overall, 72 percent (1473) of submitters agreed with spending more on the five Council priority areas, 7 percent (134) disagreed, 8 percent (166) were not sure and 13 percent (277) did not answer the question. There is a similar pattern of support when the feedback analysed is in relation to gender, age, ethnicity, individuals or organisations. In addition, 35 percent of submitters indicated that resilience and environment was the strategic priority they would tackle first, while 30 percent said they would place transport as the highest of the five priorities. A further 24 percent ranked housing first, sustainable growth came in forth with 7 percent of submitters ranking it first and arts and culture had 5 percent of submitters placing it as their top priority.
The consultation proposals
The consultation proposals for each of the priorities comprised two options.
* Option 1 – increase levels of service by investing in the proposed key projects
* Option 2 – keep current levels of service
The Council also indicated its preferred option in the consultation document. The preferred option for each of the proposals was option 1.
Each proposal included between 1 and 3 key projects. Overall, a clear majority of respondents supported the preferred option for each priority area proposal, as the following statistics show:
- 80 percent supported the resilience and environment preferred option (three key projects)
- 81 percent supported the housing preferred option (one key project)
- 52 percent supported the transport preferred option (two key projects)
- 62 percent supported the sustainable growth preferred option (two key projects)
- 78 percent supported the arts and culture preferred option (two key projects).
Feedback on other initiatives
In addition to feedback on the proposals, the Council also sought feedback on other related initiatives for each priority. Overall, most initiatives were supported by a majority of submissions although some received somewhat less support than others, for example the conservation upgrades for Wellington Zoo and extending the life of Kiwi Point Quarry.
What was decidedTop
The Council considered all of the consultation feedback at the June 2018 deliberations on Our 10-Year Plan 2018-28. In summary, the Council decided that the final plan should include timing changes to some initiatives, should mention climate change and also include a review of some key strategies.
a) Changes to initiatives:
- Bring forward the sewage sludge project (2023) to year 4, with $1 million allocated in year 3 for planning and design
- Bring forward $10 million flood reduction work in Tawa from year 7 to year 4
- Cycling master plan - In anticipation of the government’s Policy Statement on Transport supporting the faster delivery of safe cycling infrastructure, continue to review the development of the city’s safe cycling infrastructure with a view to bringing forward delivery in the north and west of the city
b) Changes to the narrative of the plan and reviewing strategies:
- Incorporating the impact of climate change, which includes waste reduction (for example, through the Wellington Region Waste Management and Minimisation Plan), energy conservation and water sensitive design
- Emphasising climate change and resulting funding implications to insurance, renewal of ageing infrastructure and making reference to critical assets and risks around them
- Reflecting the Council’s commitment to working in partnership with stakeholder groups to (for example) make Wellington more accessible
- Exploring the development of a School Travel Plan for every school in the city
- Requiring future Special Housing Areas (SHAs) to include full consultation on the nature of the SHA and the intended resource management outcomes
- Review of the arts and cultural strategy and financial and infrastructure strategy within the first 2 years of the plan
The Council also reviewed requests from the community to fund various projects or activities and committed to continue working with each organisation on their request. Some requests could be considered as part of the grants funding round or existing grants, and some were better considered in conjunction with key decisions or plans currently being developed.
