Most street lights are owned by your local council

Wellington Electricity owns and operates the electricity distribution network that supplies power to street lights, which are owned and operated by local councils.

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 street lights. 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.

Reporting a street light outage

This means, if you want to report either an outage or any other issue with a street light or lamp, then you should in the first instance contact your local council. Lighting outages may be as a result of storm damage, pole replacement work, vegetation infringement, electricity network power supply outages, or quite simply a faulty light or fuse. Lighting and power outages are most likely to occur during storms, high winds and heavy rain.

As a general rule, if only one or two lights are out, the council will fix the issue as it is likely to be an issue with the street lights 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.

Wellington City Council

Before you report an outage with Wellington City Council, make sure you check their street light outages map first here. This will help you see whether an outage has already been reported and when it is due to be fixed.  

To report an outage or any other street light issue visit their website here. 

Hutt City Council

Before you report an outage with Hutt City Council, make sure you check their street light outages map first here. This will help you see whether an outage has already been reported and when it is due to be fixed.  

To report an outage or any other street light issue visit their website here. 

Porirua City Council

You can report any street light issue to the Porirua City Council either by using Antenno or by visiting their website for more information here.

Upper Hutt City Council

To report a street light fault to the Upper Hutt City Council visit their website here