During April and May 2023, we invited Wellingtonians to tell us their priorities for the city over the next ten years by completing an online survey or attending a public workshop. More than 3000 people participated.

What did people say?

Public workshops

At the public workshops, participants completed a ‘card sorting’ activity, selecting priorities for three categories – ‘most urgent’, ‘do next’ and ‘ongoing effort’. The most frequently selected priorities were:

Most urgent

  • Resilience of pipes and other infrastructure
  • Better public transport infrastructure
  • Prepare to withstand and adapt to climate change
  • Support affordable housing
  • Make it safer and easier to walk around the city, including for older people and disabled people
  • Improve the health of our waterways

Do next

  • Reduce our carbon emissions
  • Improve safety in the city at night
  • Reduce our waste going to landfill
  • More support for low income and vulnerable residents
  • Shift to an economy that creates less waste
  • Help people to better prepare for natural disasters

Ongoing effort

  • Upgrade suburban town centres
  • Better community and recreational facilities
  • Protect and preserve our native plants and animals
  • Make it cheaper and easier to use Council services
  • More funding for the arts and cultural sectors
  • Protect and preserve physical heritage like pā sites, historic buildings, and memorials

Online survey

For the online survey, participants ranked priorities in five key areas: natural environment, economy, urban form, culture, and community. The top-ranked priority in each category was:

  • Natural environment: Improve the health of our waterways
  • Economy: Upgrade suburban town centres; Shift to an economy that creates less waste (1st =)
  • Urban form: Improve resilience of pipes, roads and other infrastructure; Better public transport infrastructure (1st =)
  • Culture: More funding for the arts and cultural sectors; Make our cultural diversity more visible through public art, events and activities (1st =)
  • Community: Improve safety in the city at night

View detailed results from phase 1

How was this feedback used?

Feedback was incorporated into the recommended outcomes, strategic priorities and strategic approaches below. These will be used to develop the Long-term Plan.

Outcomes

A welcoming, diverse and creative city that celebrates and uplifts te ao Māori, champions the arts, and embraces the heritage, creativity, curiosity, and expression of our multi-cultural communities and identities.

A liveable, accessible and compact city with affordable, warm, dry housing; zero-carbon accessible transport choices; resilient infrastructure fit for growth; and proudly visible te ao Māori and multicultural heritage.

A city of healthy and thriving whānau and communities, where people feel safe and connected, that takes an equity approach to caring for its people and provides awesome, vibrant and diverse places to meet and play.

A city restoring and protecting nature, with easy access to nature, systems to reduce waste, thriving biodiversity and nature-based solutions in natural and urban environments.

An innovative, business-friendly city that is providing good jobs for people, successfully operating in a dynamic zero-carbon circular economy, and with efficient and fit-for-purpose regulatory processes.

Strategic priorities

  • Transform our waste system to enable a circular economy
  • Collaborate with our communities to mitigate and adapt to climate change
  • Fix our water infrastructure and improve the health of waterways
  • Celebrate and make visible te ao Māori across our city
  • Nurture and grow our arts sector
  • Transform our transport system to move more people with fewer vehicles
  • Revitalise the city and suburbs to support a thriving and resilient economy and support job growth
  • Increase access to good, affordable housing to improve the wellbeing of our communities
  • Invest in sustainable, connected and accessible community and recreation facilities

Strategic approaches

We honour Te Tiriti through strong relationships with mana whenua and Māori. We weave Māori perspectives and thinking into our work at all levels to maximise positive impact for Māori.

  • We are removing barriers and making it easier for all people to find information, access our services, and participate in social and economic activities.
  • Accessibility is for everyone – mobility impaired, neurodiverse, elderly, children, blind and low vision, d/Deaf, people who don’t speak English, parents with push chairs, and temporary injuries. Communities that experience discrimination are supported.
  • We actively mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change as a matter of urgency, and support Wellingtonians to do the same.
  • Our actions will continue to minimise and where possible have a positive impact through biodiversity planning and prevent further harm to the environment, while acknowledging and preparing for the climate changes ahead.
  • We tailor engagement with Wellingtonians to our many cultural contexts and will ensure all parts of the community are heard.
  • We work with communities to understand their aspirations for Wellington and use a range of methods to improve the diversity, quality, and accessibility of our engagements.
  • Our-decision-making processes will be evidenced based, transparent and always seek to achieve the best outcomes for current and future generations.
  • We are efficient and effective with our resources to get the best outcomes possible within a constrained funding environment.
  • We will deliver high quality, well managed programmes and projects to maximise value for our residents and the city.
  • We will seek to find additional ways to fund projects and activities, including advocating for central government funding.

These were approved by Councillors at the Long-term Plan, Finance and Performance Committee on 17 August 2023.