Wellington City Council

Wellington City Council
Type
Type	City council of Wellington City
Leadership
Mayor	Justin Lester
Structure
Seats	15[lower-alpha 1]
Political groups	Labour (4)      Green (3)      Independent (8)
Elections
Voting system	STV
Last election	8 October 2016
Next election	2019
Meeting place
Wellington Town Hall Wakefield Street Wellington
Website
wellington.govt.nz/
Footnotes
↑ Includes Mayor

Satellite photo of central Wellington (south at bottom left)

Wellington City Council is a territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the country's third-largest city by population, behind Auckland and Christchurch. Wellington City consists of the central historic town and certain additional areas within the Wellington metropolitan area, extending as far north as Linden and covering rural areas such as Makara and Ohariu. The city adjoins Porirua in the north and Hutt City in the north-east. It is one of nine territorial authorities in the Wellington Region.

Wellington attained city status in 1886. The settlement had become the colonial capital and seat of government by 1865, replacing Auckland. Parliament officially sat in Wellington for the first time on 26 July 1865. During the last half of the nineteenth century, Wellington grew rapidly from 7,460 residents in 1867 to 49,344 by the end of the century.^[1]

The council represents a population of 207,900 (as of 2016),^[2] and consists of a mayor and fourteen councillors elected from five wards (Northern, Onslow-Western, Lambton, Eastern, Southern).^{[n 1][3]} It administers public works, sanitation, land use and building consents, among other local services. The council has used the marketing slogan "Absolutely Positively Wellington" in an official capacity since the early 1990s.^[4]

Council

All councillors are members of Council, the City Strategy Committee, and the Long-Term and Annual Plan Committee.^[5]

Coat of arms

Wellington Coat of Arms.

The City of Wellington has a Coat of Arms. The Blazon is;

• Arms: Quarterly Gules and Azure, a Cross Or between; In the first quarter a Fleece Or; in the second quarter on Water barry wavy proper in base a Lymphad sail furled pennon and flags flying Argent; in the third quarter a Garb Or; in the fourth quarter five Plates in Saltire Argent.
• Crest: On a Mural Crown Argent a Dolphin Naiant Azure, Mantled Gules.
• Supporters: On the dexter side a Lion gorged with a Collar and Chain reflexed over the back Or, and on the sinister side a Moa proper.
• Motto: Suprema a Situ

Translation of the Blazon:

The shield is divided vertically and horizontally, quarter of which the first and fourth are red and the remaining pair are blue. A golden cross is placed over the entire shield centrally between these quarters. The top left quarter contains a golden fleece (usually depicted as a whole sheep with a band around its middle). The second quarter is depicted as a silver sailing ship (lymphad) with its sails furled as it would be in port but with its flags flying, placed on waves in their natural colour. The third quarter contains a golden wheat sheaf, and the fourth has five silver discs arranged in a saltire.

The mural crown (a crown depicted as if made of stonewalling) is common as a crest in city coats of arms. It is coloured silver, and from its top comes a swimming dolphin. Around the crest is mantling in red. The supporters on either side of the shield are a golden heraldic lion with a chained collar around its neck to the left, and a moa in its natural colouring on the right (the terms "sinister" and "dexter" relate to the shield from the holder's point of view, not the viewer's, thus dexter is the viewer's left and sinister is the viewer's right). The base on which the supporters stand is normally not emblazoned but is left to the artist to decide. The Motto may be translated as "Supreme by position".

Demographics

Wellington's demographics sets it apart from the rest of the country. According to the 2006 Census, Wellington has:

• The second-largest percentage of people in their twenties and thirties (37.3% compared to 27.4% nationally).
• The least number of people in their sixties (6.4%) and the second least number of people aged over sixty (12.2%).

Suburbs

Wellington city has roughly 60 officially defined suburbs; one can group them by the wards used to elect the City Council. Some areas, while officially forming part of a larger suburb (or several suburbs), are considered by some to be separate communities. The officially defined suburbs include:

Official suburbs of Wellington: the darker tone indicate built-up areas, the lighter parkland, green belt or rural areas.

Communities of common interest

Courtenay Place; Courtenay Quarter; Cuba Quarter; Lambton Quarter; The Waterfront Quarter

Positively Wellington Tourism, funded by the Wellington City Council, has designated the four inner-city "quarters" as marketing subdivisions to promote international and domestic tourism.

Educational facilities

Victoria University of Wellington, Kelburn campus

Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington's oldest university, has its main campus in the hill suburb of Kelburn overlooking the centre of the city. It also has two downtown campuses and one in the western suburb of Karori. It originated as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The Senate of the University of New Zealand operated in Wellington until its dissolution in 1961.

A branch of Massey University is located in Wellington: it took over the site and some of the courses of the former Wellington Polytechnic. The campus is based at the former Dominion Museum, which has moved to Te Papa. The University of Otago also has a Wellington connection, as the Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences is a department of that university.

Wellington Institute of Technology serves Wellington and the neighbouring Hutt Valley. One of the largest polytechnics in the region, it dates from 1904.

Numerous primary and secondary educational institutions operate throughout the city, see List of schools in Wellington, New Zealand.

Wellington has a number of museums and galleries, including Te Papa, the City Gallery and the Museum of Wellington City & Sea. The Wellington Museums Trust runs the latter two, and other museums.

Sister-city relationships

Sister cities^[10]

• Sydney, Australia
• Canberra, Australia^[11]
• Beijing, People's Republic of China
• Xiamen, Fujian, People's Republic of China
• Sakai, Osaka, Japan

Historical sister cities^[12]

• Harrogate, England, United Kingdom
• Hania, Crete, Greece
• Çanakkale, Turkey

Friendly cities^[13]

• Tianjin, People's Republic of China

History

The City of Wellington has subsumed independent boroughs including:

• Melrose (established 1888) in 1903
• Onslow (Khandallah/Ngaio) (established 1890) in 1919 (Wadestown had joined the city in 1906)
• Karori (established 1891) in 1920
• Miramar (established 1904) in 1921
• Johnsonville (a Town Board from 1908), in 1953
• Tawa (a Town district from 1951, then the Tawa Flat Borough Council from 1953) in 1989

Buildings

Wellington Town Hall, incorporating the Mayor's Office and Council Chambers

The Wellington City Council operates from a complex on Wakefield Street, with various extensions each representing a distinctive architectural period. The complex incorporates the Wellington Town Hall which opened in 1904, with the most recent extension completed in 1991 alongside the Wellington Central Library.

See also

• Wellington Region

References

Footnotes

Citations

• A Complete Guide To Heraldry by A.C. Fox-Davies 1909.

External links

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Wellington City.

• WellingtonNZ.com
• Wellington City Council
• Wellington City Council maps

Coordinates: 41°17′44″S 174°46′50″E / 41.29556°S 174.78056°E / -41.29556; 174.78056