Hutt City Council and Wellington Water to release Point Howard slip report in early April

The report will present all the information and examine what happened in the weeks and months leading up to the slip, and identify lessons both organisations can learn from and implement.

"Our immediate focus following the slip is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of Point Howard residents," said Mayor Campbell Barry. "Now that utilities have been restored to the area and work is underway to restore vehicle access, we want to make sure we fully understand what happened and what we can change to prevent similar events in future.

"Residents understandably have questions, and this report will provide some answers. We’ll also work with residents to inform our report to ensure there’s a shared understanding of the facts."

Hutt City Council will release this to the public, and it will be presented to Councillors.

While the report is being prepared, work is already underway to identify known leaks in Lower Hutt’s hill suburbs and prioritise those for repair if needed.

There are currently 1033 known leaks in Lower Hutt (many of which were detected by Wellington Water below ground, rather than reported by the public):

• Of these, 174 are in hill suburbs
• 22 of these are being inspected as a priority
• 2 have already been prioritised for repair

Wellington Water is also already reviewing the criteria used to determine the priority of leaks to account for leaks in hill suburbs or areas prone to land movement.

The report will be published on the Hutt City Council website once finalised.