Who what where
Horizons Regional Council manages the land, air, and water for the communities we serve.
Our roles include:
Managing our environment
Natural Resources Management
- Maintaining and enhancing our Region’s land, water, air, coast and habitat protection
Keeping people safe
Civil Defence and Emergency Management
- Leading the Regions response to natural disasters
Biosecurity and Biodiversity
- Preserving our patch of native NZ
Catchment Management
- Reducing the risk and impact of flooding
Regulatory and Strategic Management
- Providing accurate information for resource consents
Getting people places
Transport Management
- Leading our Region’s road, rail, public transport and total mobility planning.
Our Region
The Tararua, Manawatu, Horowhenua, Rangitikei, Wanganui and Ruapehu districts and Palmerston North City are within our regional boundary, along with part of the Waitomo, Taupo and Stratford districts. See our people and places for more information and a map of the Region.
Your city or district council is responsible for community services in your area, like road maintenance, libraries, land use and subdivisions. On the other hand we, your regional council, manage the natural resources in your area.
Some of these activities span across several city and district council boundary lines therefore Horizons works closely with other councils on some issues to ensure they are managed to benefit the whole region.
Our Council is made up of 12 elected Councillors who together decide on suitable plans and policies for the Region and then Executive Management Team decides how they can be implemented effectively.
What we do
Managing our environment
The Horizons Region is one of the most beautiful in New Zealand, to keep it this way the Council does a lot of work to help enhance and maintain the natural resources in the area.
This includes:
- land management or ensuring the land, air, coast, rivers, farms and waste are all kept in top working order
- water quantity and quality management, or ground and surface water control
- habitat protection
- regulatory and strategic management, like resource consents and environmental compliance
- pest plant and pest animal management, like keeping on top of possums and Old Mans Beard
Keeping people safe
Horizons keeps on top of their game, they are the first to responds to risk from natural and man-made hazards throughout the Region.
Our key role is to identify potential hazards and risks to people, property, infrastructure, environment and the economy. Our main areas of focus are biosecurity and biodiversity, catchment management, flood protection and civil defence and emergency management.
Getting people places
Moving people from A to B safely is important to us here at Horizons, that’s why one of our most significant roles is the transportation of our communities.
Some of the great transport work we do includes:
- planning passenger transport services
- subsiding bus services in areas where they cannot be provided commercially
- managing the Total Mobility service which provides transport for people who are not able to use public passenger transport
- organising community road safety education and activities
- coordinating the Regional Land Transport Committee.
How we plan our work
Acts of Parliament such as the Local Government Act 2002 (LGA) and the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) provide the framework for our work. However these are not rigidly set, so if the community wants us to do something and is prepared to pay for it, we can do it for them.
The process looks like this:
Annual consultation with our communities determines what they want us to do
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The community’s wants are debated by Council
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Specific activities and budgets are set out in a Community Plan (every 6 years) or Annual Plan (in the years between Community Plans)
Learn more about how Horizons Regional Council was established.