Hutt City and Readynet

David Ogden, Mayor, Hutt City Council

Hutt City escaped the worst of the recent storms. We haven’t always been so lucky.  Living on the most densely populated floodplain in New Zealand and crossed by many earthquake fault lines requires us to be ever vigilant for when Mother Nature strikes.

My Councillors and I are connected to the council’s Readynet service so that we receive notice of warnings and ALERTS being sent into our community when major incidents threaten or occur. The feedback about this service has been very positive and has lead to a case study being commissioned by Local Government Online (LGOL).

The case study has comments and feedback from school, rest home, council and police staff who all have important roles during civil defence events. I am appreciative of the level of community engagement that is evident in preparing for and responding to these events.

The case of rest homes and the obligation to provide them with timely and accurate advice about storm, flooding, chemical leak or other threats is of particular interest to me.

With our northern neighbour Upper Hutt we operate a combined Emergency Management Office which recognises that rivers, fault lines and storms do not stop at the city boundary. Emergency Manager Paul Nickalls and his team have made good use of Readynet as shown in the feedback provided by the case study.

All elected representatives have an interest in emergency management and how our teams respond “on the day”. The LGOL case study highlights the “community engagement” theme – I welcome it and commend it to readers of this column.

Regards

David Ogden
Mayor