Attention Hutt City Council Chief Executive

This is a complaint about the failure of the Hutt City Council to supply information as required under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987.

I requested a copy of the unedited video of the meeting of the District Plan Committee of 29 February 2024. I also made complaints about the record of the committee. In reply, I was told that the publicly available video was the full unedited version and that the complaints would be answered separately. I have spoken to witnesses who attended the meeting and who viewed the meeting online. They all agree that statements were made at the meeting that do not appear in the current online version. In addition, I have still not received a response to my complaints.

On 28 April 2024 I requested copies of all submissions made on the Draft District Plan. Only a small proportion of the total of 300 submissions was supplied.

Yours faithfully,

Craig Innes

Attention the Chief Executive Hutt City Council

My understanding is that I must contact the Chief Executive before I am able to request an investigation by the Ombudsman about the actions of the Council.

My request was addressed to the Chief Executive and I want a response directly from the Chief Executive.

The information supplied is not the full information requested. I requested copies of all submissions. According to the minutes of the Committee, 300 submissions were received. I have only received a small proportion of the submissions. I have evidence of numerous submissions that I know were received but have not been supplied.

To be clear, I will repeat and clarify my complaints. I want a response to each complaint:

1. At the meeting of 29 February 2024 I asked that the submission of the Wainuiomata Rural Community Association be appended to the minutes of the Committee. This was the statement, together with the reply, that I believe was edited out of the video recording of the meeting. Regardless of whether the statement was edited out there was apparently no denial of the chairman that the statement was made. To be clear, I want the submission made publicly available. I also want all other submissions to be made available. This was publicly agreed to by the chairman of the Committee.

2. The minutes of the District Plan Committee meeting of 29 February are not a full and accurate reflection of the statements made at the meeting. I ask that an addendum is filed on the record to include the missing statements.

3. The mail drop supposedly informing landowners of the proposed changes that might affect their property created significant confusion. The confusion is reflected in many of the submissions that have been supplied. To be clear, the problems were caused by a mail merge process that was wholly inadequate. The process that identified the affected properties could easily and automatically provided detailed information to be included within each communication. As it stands the communication to landowners has been completely inadequate and I believe that the process must be halted until a proper communication is made.

Yours sincerely,

Craig Innes

Tena koe Philip,

My communication was with the Chief Executive. I have been instructed by the Ombudsman to address the complaint to the Chief Executive. Please ensure that the reply to my communication comes from the Chief Executive.

You state that the link to submissions provided is publicly available. The full link address is https://hccpublicdocs.azurewebsites.net/...
I can not find this document on the Hutt City Council website. Please provide details about how a member of the public can find the document. The document provided is 255 pages long. It clearly does not include all 300 submissions referred to in the agenda for the District Plan Committee. Please provide the full set of submissions received by the Council.

I have been in contact with witnesses to the meeting who observed statements made at the meeting that have been edited out of the video record. I want to see a statement from the Chief Executive on this matter.

Naku noa, na,

Craig Innes

Tena koe Jo Miller
Chief Executive
Hutt City Council

This is a complaint to you, the Chief Executive, Hutt City Council. This communication is addressed to you and I expect that the reply will be attributed to you.

I requested copies of the submissions made to the District Plan Review. I have been repeatedly referred to a collection of four digital documents, which I have repeatedly verified are not the full set of submissions received by the Council. According to the record of the District Plan Committee approximately 300 submissions were received. I have not been supplied anything like that number of submissions.

I have repeatedly requested a full copy of the video record of the meeting of the District Plan Committee of 29 February 2024. I have been in contact with witnesses to the meeting who confirm that the video record has been altered. I ask you to respond to my statement that the video record of the meeting has been altered.

Naku noa, na,

Craig Innes