Case study 3.4

Upper Hutt City Council – An iterative development process means that asset management plans (AMPs) are well integrated with business planning, and regularly updated. This means the Council avoids the daunting task of periodically overhauling its AMPs.

Upper Hutt City Council has thought hard about how its approach to asset management can best be integrated with its business planning process. Rather than doing all its planning concurrently as many councils do, it has developed an iterative process for updating and finalising its AMPs.

Unlike many councils that update their plans, say, every three years, Upper Hutt has devised an annual process of review and update so that the AMPs really are living documents – plans that are actively used as plans for what will be done.

The Council starts its review process early in the year, working towards a series of April review workshops, where asset engineers get together with senior managers to scrutinise the forthcoming work programmes. In May and June, plans are then adjusted to reflect the outcome from the workshops. Final drafts are available to inform corporate planning and the Long-Term Council Community Plan. The AMPs themselves are updated again and finalised once the Council has adopted its LTCCP or annual plan.