The Wellington City Council project turns a visit to the city’s green spaces into a hunt, with riddles and hints revealing where the themed gardens are tucked away.

Six council apprentices are taking part this year, displaying gardens they have designed and tended. Visitors can explore their creations throughout November and vote for their favourites in the People’s Choice competition.

Clues will be available on the council’s Hidden Gardens webpage from 2 November. More information will appear on the council’s Facebook and Instagram channels during the month.

The Wellington Gardens event listing places the gardens at multiple locations across the city, with visits from dawn until dusk.

For the apprentices, the project provides a public showcase for the horticultural skills they are developing. In a 2024 introduction to the programme, the council described a three-year apprenticeship combining work in nature with a New Zealand Certificate in Horticulture, specialising in amenity horticulture.

Previous Hidden Gardens projects have given apprentices room to develop very different ideas. In 2023, themes included witches, ferns and fungi, the power of soil and an alpine adventure, with gardens developed over the course of that year.

This year’s public vote runs from 2 to 30 November. People who vote can enter a draw for a night’s stay for two at the historic Sextons Cottage near Bolton Street Cemetery.

The People’s Choice winner will be announced in December, but the gardens will remain in place throughout summer, giving residents more time to visit after voting closes.

Clues and voting information will be available at wellington.govt.nz/hidden-gardens.

The Council’s Te Takere Regulatory Processes Committee gave the go-ahead on Wednesday 7 October for changes on Bunny Street and a revised package of transport and pedestrian improvements in Brooklyn.

On Bunny Street, the approved work includes a raised pedestrian platform outside the railway station and a new two-way bike lane linking Te Ara Tupua and Thorndon Quay with the waterfront.

The pedestrian platform will be wider than first proposed following public feedback.

Council consultation on the Bunny Street project received 785 submissions, with 60 percent supporting the proposed changes.

The Brooklyn package includes a permanent uphill bike lane on Brooklyn Road, along with improvements for pedestrians and bus users.

Consultation on the Brooklyn Connections project received 669 submissions, with 59 percent supporting or strongly supporting the proposal.

Councillors also agreed to retain up to eight car parks on the east side of Ōhiro Road and up to 20 spaces on the west side between Todman Street and Brooklyn Road.

Further work will be done on an alternative option for a weekday morning clearway on the city-bound side of Ōhiro Road instead of a cycleway. Any change would be subject to further public consultation.

The Council will also consult on extending the 30km/h speed limit on Ōhiro Road north of Tanera Crescent.

Construction on both projects is expected to begin in early 2027.

The Future Fit Pōneke report, released on 25 November 2025, concluded the council had about 330 more full-time-equivalent staff than comparable organisations.

Deloitte estimated reducing staffing by that amount could save an average of $33.9 million.

But subsequent council analysis has identified significant problems with how that figure was calculated.

The council found occupied positions had been counted alongside vacant roles, while some staffing comparisons relied on employment data from the Taxpayers’ Union that was current as at June 2022.

Wellington City Council had supplied Deloitte with staffing and cost information through to 30 June 2025.

Council papers also found employees had been costed at their full-time salary regardless of the hours they actually worked.

That overstated staffing expenditure by $21.5 million.

Another assumption treated positions containing the word “project” as duplicated roles.

Council officials were blunt about what those problems meant for Deloitte’s central staffing recommendation.

“The incorrect data usage means that the assumptions used to construct the recommendation to reduce the organisation by 330 FTE were inherently flawed,” council papers said.

Recalculating the figure produced an estimate of 284 FTE, but council papers cautioned that this did not account for other assumptions in the Deloitte analysis which could also be incorrect.

The distinction matters because the report was not merely an academic exercise.

When it was released, the 330 figure became one of its most prominent findings and formed part of a wider argument that Wellington City Council could substantially reduce staffing costs.

The report was commissioned by council chief executive Matt Prosser as an independent review aimed at improving council performance and rates affordability.

At the time, Prosser cautioned that its recommendations would need to be critically assessed.

Mayor Andrew Little has since intensified criticism of Deloitte’s work.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB, Little said the council had provided Deloitte with up-to-date staffing information, but the firm had used the older Taxpayers’ Union data for part of its analysis.

“They’ve never explained why they did that,” Little said.

Little also alleged that artificial intelligence had been extensively used in producing the report.

“The other thing that we’ve since discovered, because you can do this now, is that large chunks of it were written by AI.”

Little did not identify which sections he believed had been written using AI or explain publicly how that conclusion had been reached.

Deloitte has not accepted Little’s characterisation that “large chunks” of the report were written by AI.

The company has said it uses a range of technologies across its work, including AI-enabled tools where appropriate, and that analysis, findings and conclusions require human sign-off.

Deloitte has also stood by the report.

“We are satisfied that the report’s conclusions reflect the work performed and the professional judgement applied throughout the engagement,” a spokesperson said.

Little acknowledged that the report was not without value, pointing particularly to its examination of the council’s contract-management systems.

But his assessment of other sections was stark.

“Other parts of the report were frankly just a waste of time,” he said.

Little said the report had already informed some actions inside the council, including work on vacancy management and contract management.

He said council staffing numbers were also being reduced independently through restructuring and efficiency work.

Asked whether the council had approached Deloitte seeking a refund, Little said he personally had not and noted that the report had been commissioned by the chief executive rather than the mayor.

He said the matter was ultimately for Prosser and council officers.

Asked whether he would raise it with Prosser, Little said: “I’ll talk to him about it.”