Te Poari ā-Rohe o Upper Harbour

Upper Harbour Local Board

Illustration of a small passenger plane flying low over the water towards a runway. In the background are green hills, a rugby pitch and a large sports stadium with floodlights.

Our funding for 2026/2027

We have been allocated $17 million for capital investment and $22.2 million for operational spend in 2026/2027.

Capital investment

We use these funds to renew and develop assets like:

  • community facilities
  • parks and sports fields.

Operating spend

We use these funds to run our services like:

  • community centres
  • libraries and parks
  • community and environmental programmes, and events.

The $22.2 million for operational spend in 2026/2027 includes:

  • $19.7 million for community services
  • $800,000 for environmental services
  • $900,000 for planning services
  • $1 million for governance (how we manage our local board area).

These figures are rounded to the nearest $100,000.

A lot of our operating budget will pay for existing contracts to maintain community facilities and open spaces.

Cost increases

We are also facing cost increases that will affect our operating budget. These include:

  • rising costs to provide our existing services, including utilities like electricity and water
  • maintaining our assets like community centres, libraries and parks
  • staff costs.

At the same time, we are making less revenue than expected from fees and charges.

In 2026/2027, we expect to spend $700,000 more to continue providing these services than we did in 2025/2026. This amount might change before the final annual plan is adopted.

Changes to current service levels, fees and charges

To address the cost increases we are facing, we could make some or all of the following changes to service levels:

  • stop scheduled work on bollards, ‘post-and-rail’ fencing and work in low-value bush areas
  • stop mulching and extra planting in public gardens
  • reduce maintenance on planted and natural bush areas in urban settings
  • reduce funding for contestable grants by 50 per cent. These grants are awarded to projects that best meet community goals
  • reduce funding across all programmes and projects including:
    • environmental projects
    • community events, programmes and projects
    • cycling projects
  • options to increase fees and charges at Albany Stadium Pool:
    • option 1- increase ‘casual swim’ fees to $5 ($1 increase) and ‘swim plus’ fees to $11.40 ($1 increase)
    • option 2 - increase spectator fees and supervising adult fees to $2 ($1 increase)
    • option 3 - increase spectator fees and supervising adult fees to $5 ($4 increase).

Have your say

We want to know what you think about our plans for the Upper Harbour Local Board area.

Have your say now

The information on this page is an edited version of the:

  • Annual Plan 2026/2027 Consultation Document
  • Annual Plan 2026/2027 Supporting Information Document.

You can refer to pages 75-79 of the Annual Plan 2026/2027 Supporting Information Document for more details about our proposals for the Upper Harbour Board area.

Visit Annual plan documents, videos and translations to read all annual plan documents in full.