Have Your Say

By reducing the number of Community Emergency Hubs in your area, your community will benefit from a single, central location where everyone can come together. This allows for better coordination and resource sharing, ensuring a more organised and effective response. Instead of managing multiple smaller efforts with fewer resources, your community will be stronger and more united, with everything you need in one place.  

We have carefully planned the locations of our Community Emergency Hubs to ensure they are within a 30-minute walking distance for most people. This distance meets our criteria for accessibility and ensures that your Community Emergency Hub is as convenient as possible in an emergency.  

While the number of Community Emergency Hubs in your neighbourhood may decrease, this will not result in a reduction of service. In fact, it will strengthen the support available to you. With fewer, more centralised Community Emergency Hubs, each location will have a greater concentration of community members, which means more people to assist and collaborate on solving problems during an emergency.  
  
By consolidating the Community Emergency Hubs, we avoid spreading emergency services too thinly across multiple locations, ensuring that each Community Emergency Hub is well-supported and easier for the community to identify and access when needed. This approach reduces confusion and enhances the overall effectiveness of our emergency response. 

The rationalisation of Community Emergency Hubs is intended to strengthen the overall emergency response, including the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC). By consolidating Community Emergency Hubs, resources are centralised, and coordination is streamlined, allowing the EOC to manage and direct emergency responses more effectively with a clearer understanding of available resources and community needs. With fewer but better-equipped Community Emergency Hubs, resource management is improved, enabling quicker deployment of support where it’s most needed. 
 
Centralised Community Emergency Hubs also enhance communication between the EOC and Community Emergency Hubs, leading to more efficient information flow and coordination during emergencies. These changes optimise response strategies, ensuring that all communities receive swift and effective support. Ultimately, this rationalisation aims to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the emergency response, benefiting both the EOC and the communities it serves.

Your voice is important to us. Throughout October and November, your local Community Resilience Advisor will be in your community to gather feedback through public consultations. If you can’t attend a meeting, you can still share your thoughts by completing our online survey, via phone, email or physical submission.

Public submissions close on 20 December 2024.

The entire process, from planning to the final locations of the Community Emergency Hubs, is expected to be completed by June 2025. 

The decision to change or consolidate a Community Emergency Hub location is based on a comprehensive review and an effort to create a balanced network of Community Emergency Hubs.

Historically, some areas, such as the Hutt Valley, had more than others. We are now updating our approach to ensure consistency and fairness across the region. 

Here’s why certain Community Emergency Hubs are chosen over others: 

• Historical Distribution: Some Community Emergency Hubs were established based on an older system that led to uneven distribution across different areas. 
• Balanced Network: We are applying the same criteria to all areas within Wellington region to create a more effective and balanced network of Community Emergency Hubs. This involves consolidating, relocating or creating some Community Emergency Hubs to improve overall service. 
• Consistency: By reassessing all Community Emergency Hubs with the same standards, we aim to ensure that all communities have access to well-placed and properly resourced emergency support. 

This approach helps us provide a more streamlined and effective emergency response for everyone. 

WREMO used a detailed set of criteria to evaluate each Community Emergency Hub's location and determine whether it should be proposed to remain or be consolidated. The key factors that WREMO considered in this process were: 

• Venue Safety and Suitability: We assessed whether the Community Emergency Hub is in a safe area and meets earthquake standards. 
• Venue Ownership and Willingness: We considered whether the venue owner is willing to continue hosting the Community Emergency Hub. 
• Availability of Suitable Venues: We looked at whether better-suited venues are available in the area. 
• Proximity to Other Community Emergency Hubs: We ensured that Community Emergency Hubs are within a 30-minute walking distance of one another. 
• Community Serviceability: We verified that the community is adequately served by existing Community Emergency Hubs. 
• Emergency Assistance Centre Location Suitability: We checked if the Community Emergency Hub is being used as a council operated Emergency Assistance Centre location. An Emergency Assistance Centre is a place opened and managed by the local council (Civil Defence) where affected people can go to register for official assistance.
• Council Ownership: We preferred venues that are community managed rather than council facilities. 
• Mitigation and Strengthening Plans: We reviewed whether there are plans to earthquake strengthen or mitigate issues at the Community Emergency Hub. 
• Accessibility Requirements: We ensured that Community Emergency Hubs meet accessibility standards or have plans to address accessibility issues. 
• Natural Gathering Places: We evaluated whether the Community Emergency Hub is a natural gathering spot for the community. 
• Facility Adequacy: We assessed whether the venue's facilities meet the needs or if a better venue is available. 
• Community Support and Historical Investment: We considered the level of community support and past investments in the Community Emergency Hub. 
• Infrastructure Embedding: We looked at whether the Community Emergency Hub is integrated into critical infrastructure. 

For the creation of New Community Emergency Hubs: We assessed the need for new Community Emergency Hubs in areas with new housing developments or where communities face extended isolation. 

These criteria helped us make informed decisions to ensure that the Community Emergency Hubs we maintain or establish best serve the needs of our community. 

The Community Emergency Hub model is designed to bring communities together in central locations where they can support each other during emergencies.

Having too many Community Emergency Hubs, such as one on every street, would dilute community resources and support, making it harder to effectively coordinate a response.

We aim to place Hubs in natural gathering points like community halls or schools, where they are practical and accessible. Placing Community Emergency Hubs in private locations like garages or homes would not be practical or accessible for all the communities. 

We are proposing to move or consolidate some of the Community Emergency Hubs to make it easier for the entire community to come together and respond effectively during a disaster.

Now that our emergency management model has evolved, and following lessons learned from Cyclone Gabrielle, we are continually seeking ways to improve our response capabilities.

Streamlining the Community Emergency Hubs is part of this effort to ensure better outcomes for everyone. However, one of the strengths of the Community Emergency Hub model is its flexibility—if the new location doesn't work for your community, you have the ability to relocate it as needed. 

If your closest Community Emergency Hub closes, it's important to stay informed about the location of the next closest Community Emergency Hub and to participate in any emergency response practices when they occur.

We still aim to have a Community Emergency Hub within a 30-minute walking distance for people in urban areas.

Ensuring reliable communication with our Community Emergency Hubs is a top priority.

While VHF radios are valuable, they are just one of many tools we use in an emergency. We are constantly exploring modern and emerging technologies to enhance our communication capabilities.

Rest assured, people can still travel between the new Community Emergency Hubs locations to access a VHF radio if needed, ensuring that effective communication remains available during a response.