Most streetlights are owned by your local Council.

Who Looks After Streetlights?

The Wellington, Porirua, Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt City Councils, along with the New Zealand Transport Authority (NZTA) are supported by Wellington Electricity in keeping over 40,000 lights shining along the streets and highways in the greater Wellington area. There are also a number of lights, usually in laneways and private roads which are privately owned and whose owners are responsible for maintaining them.

The councils are responsible for maintaining the lights, poles and fittings for each street light, and maintaining the vegetation around street light poles and power lines, whereas Wellington Electricity are responsible for the network which supplies electricity to those streetlights.

As a general rule, if only one or two lights are out, the council will likely fix the issue as it is likely to be an issue with the streetlights themselves. If there are three or more lights out in a row however, the council will ask Wellington Electricity to look into the fault as it is likely to involve the streetlight network.  Only Wellington Electricity can repair electricity lines or the cabling connecting the light pole to the lines.

You can report both types of street light faults to your local Council.  They will log the fault and then pass it on to the appropriate team, including Wellington Electricity.

Reporting a Streetlight Outage

For streetlight outages Customers should contact their local Council. Please click here for a list of Councils.

Wellington City Council provide an interactive Streetlight Outage Map which displays the current streetlight outages for their council area, available here.

What Does It Take To Fix a Streetlight Fault?

Even bulb replacements can take some time to fix as they will often require some traffic management to be put in place so that the council field crews can safely replace and/or fix the fault.

For streetlight faults that involve fixes to the streetlight network, these can take a lot longer again to resolve. Underground faults especially may require digging at a number of points along a cable’s route to locate the source of the fault. Any kind of digging is likely to require a detailed planning process to ensure that the public and the crews performing the work are kept safe while it’s carried out.