Case study 2.12

Horowhenua District Council – A good structure, and clear roles and responsibilities means everyone is clear about who does what, and best use is made of limited resources

Horowhenua District Council has effective arrangements in place to co-ordinate asset management across the Council under the leadership of a Community Assets Manager. He is supported by an Infrastructure Asset Manager and a Facilities Asset Manager (who lead planning for the various asset groups), along with teams of operational staff and a team dedicated to managing capital projects.

The way in which the Council manages staff who are responsible for asset management planning makes it clear how important asset management is to the Council. The asset managers have asset management planning as core elements of their job descriptions.

Workshops allow councillors to be appropriately involved in asset management planning. In particular, they help to consider the asset requirements to support growth in demand.

There is input from throughout the Council to specific areas of the plan. For example, Planning and Regulatory staff have input to the District Plan, the Geographical Information System officer provides information on piped assets, and the Finance Manager has significant input to planning the financial programmes and setting up the funding mechanisms to ensure that they meet the Council’s funding policies.

To ensure that asset management is not carried out in isolation, it is project managed alongside other planning by an officer group drawn from throughout the organisation. This group meets weekly during the key planning period.