Wellington City Council’s falling streetlight issue was managed inadequately - review

The jagged end of a lamp post after the streetlight fell off. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Wellington City Council’s management of its falling streetlights was inadequate and ineffective, a new review has revealed.

In February of this year, the streetlights hit the headlines – and the pavements - as it was revealed fittings on about 1000 of the city’s 17,000 street lamps were faulty, and some were plummeting to the ground.

Although the streetlight team of WCC had been aware of the issue since 2020, senior executives only found out about the problem when it was reported in the media.

Now, a review into the effectiveness of the council’s risk and issues escalation process has revealed serious failures.

The review, requested by management, found the process used to identify, assess, monitor and escalate faults was “siloed and ineffective”.

With the current system, faults are identified by members of the public who log a report either by calling the Service Centre or using the FixIt app, and dangerous hazard tickets are sent directly to the contractors.

From 2019 to 2023, 160 streetlights were reported as hanging and 16 had fallen – but not a single near-miss was logged before February 8 this year.

One of these, which fell onto someone’s car, was not investigated by WCC as the ticket was sent directly to the contractor.

The escalation of risk was by word of mouth according to all the staff interviewed for the review, and only passed to a one-up manager. This meant that for the issue to reach the chief infrastructure officer, it would have to pass through three managers.

The review has recommended that WCCintroduce a formal issues management process and improve the process by including a risk of asset failure on the risk register.

It also said the chief infrastructure officer needs to have appropriate oversight of the risks and staff must be trained in risk identification and the responsibility of reporting near-miss events.

The 17,000 LED lights now deemed at risk of failure will all need their adapters replaced - hopefully within the next year.

It’s expected the work will cost $6 million. The council wants Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency to pay half, and the council will cover its share by borrowing money.

As for the glare, council transport and infrastructure manager Brad Singh estimated about 10 per cent of the street lights might result in glare complaints.

“However, at this stage, the health and safety risk posed by the street lamps is probably our greatest concern, and so we’re going to prioritise that.”