Today Hutt City Council released its draft Annual Plan 2022-23, Ngā Ekenga Making Progress, for public engagement.

"When we adopted our bold and ambitious 10-Year Plan last year, our community told us that we need to front up to the challenges we face as a city. For this coming financial year, we’re doing exactly that," says Lower Hutt Mayor Campbell Barry.

"Throughout this draft Annual Plan, you will see us putting budget lines into action. We will invest $26.7 million to make headway into building a new Naenae Pool.

"As part of our necessary $587 million investment over the next 10 years, we will be spending $48.7 million on upgrading our ageing drinking, sewage and storm water network.

"And we are investing $16.8 million to start constructing the first two sections of Tupua Horo Nuku at Sunshine Bay and Windy Point. This is all part of creating safer and more resilient access for all transport users around the Eastern Bays, as well as increasing the opportunities for local and regional tourism.

"These projects, and many others across our city over the next 12 months, all aim to do one thing - get the basics right. By investing heavily in our basic infrastructure in a financially responsible way, we can progress with laying solid foundations for the future of our city."

Hutt City Council’s Chief Executive Jo Miller says the focus of the draft Annual Plan is to deliver on key infrastructure projects in an environment of rising costs. "Through embedding cost savings and other efficiency gains, rates increases have been constrained to keep to those projected in our 10-year plan. This has been challenging, but it's important that we meet the expectations of our council and community and deliver on what we say we will do."

Residents can have their say by completing an online survey which opens today, 12 April, and runs until 3 May 2022. Council will consider feedback and adopt the final Annual Plan on 30 June 2022.

You can find the draft Annual Plan on Council's website, and share your thoughts on the plan at hutt.city/making-progress.

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