Mayor of Upper Hutt

Mayor of Upper Hutt City
Incumbent Wayne Guppy since 2001
Style	His Worship
Term length	Three years
Inaugural holder	Percy Kinsman
Formation	1966
Deputy	Hellen Swales
Website	Official website

The Mayor of Upper Hutt is the head of the municipal government of Upper Hutt, New Zealand, and presides over the Upper Hutt City Council. The mayor is directly elected using a First Past the Post electoral system. The Upper Hutt Town Board had seven chairmen, with the role regarded as the predecessor role of mayor. The Upper Hutt Borough Council was proclaimed in 1926, and with that, the role of mayor was introduced. In 1966, Upper Hutt became a city council. The current mayor, Wayne Guppy, is the eleventh since the role was created in 1926, and he was first elected in 2001.

History

Local government in Upper Hutt commenced with the formation of a Roads Board, which was subsequently incorporated into the Hutt County Council when that body was established in 1876. The road board evolved into a dependent county town board within the County Council's jurisdiction. After a change in local government legislation, the Upper Hutt Town Board was proclaimed in 1908. In 1965, Upper Hutt qualified as a city, and this status was officially conferred in the following year, with Upper Hutt becoming a city council. In 1973, the Hutt County Council, Rimutaka, and parts of Heretaunga Ridings were amalgamated with Upper Hutt, which thus became the second largest council by area (after Dunedin City Council). Further amalgamation happened in 1989, when Heretaunga/Pinehaven District Community Council was incorporated into Upper Hutt.

The seventh and last chairman of the town board, Angus McCurdy, was elected as the first mayor of the Upper Hutt Borough Council, which was formed in 1926. Peter Robertson was chairman during the years of World War I, and mayor from 1927 to 1931, and again in 1938 until his death in 1939. He died from injuries received in a car crash, colliding with the car of the son of Councillor James Blewman. The resulting by-election was won by Blewman, who beat John Purvis by a majority of 193 votes.

Doris Nicholson was mayor from 1971 to 1977. She has been the only woman so far to hold the mayoralty. She was succeeded by Rex Kirton, who was mayor for 24 years until 2001 and by the time of his retirement from the role, he was New Zealand's longest-serving mayor at that time. He was succeeded by one-term councillor Wayne Guppy, who was elected with a 6,000 vote majority and who has held the mayoralty since then.

Unusual for a city in New Zealand, none of the chairmen or mayors of Upper Hutt has been a Member of Parliament.

Until 2004, First Past the Post (FPP) was the electoral system used for New Zealand local elections (with few historic exceptions) including in Upper Hutt. The option of using the Single transferable vote voting system was introduced in 2004, but Upper Hutt continues to use FPP.

Chairmen and mayors

Upper Hutt Town Board Chairmen

The Upper Hutt Town Board had seven chairmen between 1908 and 1926.

	Name	Term
a	George Isaac Benge	1908–1910
b	Job Harrison	1910–1912
c	R. Herbert Webb	1912–1914
d	Peter Robertson	1914–1918
e	GA Campbell	1918–1920
f	William Greig	1920–1924
g	Angus McCurdy	1924–1926

Upper Hutt Borough Council

The Upper Hutt Borough Council had eight mayors between 1926 and 1966.

	Name	Term
1	Angus McCurdy	1926–1927
2	Peter Robertson, 2nd time	1927–1931
	Angus McCurdy, 2nd time	1931–1938
	Peter Robertson, 3rd time	1938–1939
3	James Blewman	1939–1947
4	Ed Nicolaus	1947–1950
5	George Williams	1950–1953
6	Dick Slacke	1953–1959
7	Percy Kinsman	1959–1966

Upper Hutt City Council

The Upper Hutt City Council has had an additional four mayors since its formation in 1966. The last mayor of the borough council was also the first mayor of the city council.

	Name	Term
	Percy Kinsman, 2nd time	1966–1968
8	George Thomas	1968–1971
9	Doris Nicholson	1971–1977
10	Rex Kirton	1977–2001
11	Wayne Guppy	2001–present