Draft Road Naming and Property Addressing Policy

To ensure road names reflect local history, culture, and identity, Council is seeking feedback on the draft Road Naming and Property Addressing Policy.

The new draft policy aims to provide a clear, inclusive process for naming and renaming roads, better aligning with the Council's vision, strategic priorities and strategies.

Before making any decisions on the policy changes, we’d like to hear from you, our community and get your feedback.

The policy change is open for feedback from Monday 24 June, until Monday 22 July.

Why Your Views Matter

Council is required to review the policy every five years. This is an opportunity to evaluate how well our current policy functions for our district and ensure it aligns with other key Council strategies.

Road names can significantly contribute to telling our local stories, so we have proposed updates to the policy objectives and process to reflect this. We’re keen to find out whether our residents would support the updates we have suggested.

Why do we need a policy?

While New Zealand legislation under the Local Government Act 1974 grants the Council the power to name roads, the method for selecting suitable names is left to the Council's discretion. The policy serves as a framework to guide this process.

Currently, the policy mandates consultation with iwi only when a Māori name is proposed. The new draft proposes that applicants must engage with iwi/hapū for all road naming processes, including naming new roads, and renaming existing ones.

This change aims to strengthen participation from iwi, hapū, and whānau in road naming and fulfil obligations under the Local Government Act 2002.

What are we proposing?

Before we make this decision, we want to know your thoughts. The key elements of proposed changes to the policy are:

• Ensuring road names are reflective of the history, culture and identity of the area they are located in.
• Enabling local iwi and hapū to participate in road naming processes.
• Ensuring road naming processes are completed within reasonable time frames.

Read the DRAFT Road Naming and Property Addressing Policy - (PDF, 992 KB)