Hutt City Council recently reviewed how we invest in recreation, sport and play across our city, including sports fields, facilities, parks and community spaces.
As part of this work, we held a series of community hui to hear from people involved in supporting active communities. These sessions explored the proposed direction for future investment and provided an opportunity for participants to share their ideas, concerns and opportunities before recommendations are developed for Council.
What we asked about
Discussions focused on proposed principles to guide future investment in recreation, sport and play. These included making participation more affordable and accessible, improving health and wellbeing outcomes, encouraging shared use of facilities, supporting partnerships with community organisations and sporting codes, delivering value for ratepayers, and improving equity and inclusion.
Participants were invited to discuss whether these principles reflected the right priorities, what was missing, and what would help make the approach successful in practice.
Why were we reviewing this?
Council's current approach to prioritising and charging for sports fields has not been substantially reviewed since 1993. Since then, our city, communities and the way people participate in recreation and sport have changed significantly.
This review is helping ensure future investment responds to changing community needs, supports wellbeing and enables more people to participate.
Feedback summary
Thank you to everyone who attended one of the community hui and shared their views. We've now collated the feedback from all three sessions into a summary report, which will be shared with participants shortly.
The feedback will help inform recommendations for Council as it develops the Long Term Plan 2027–37. There will also be an opportunity for the wider community to provide feedback during consultation on the draft Long Term Plan.