Call for Nick Leggett to resign after scathing Wellington Water report

Monday, 3 March 2025

A majority of Wellington City councillors have called for Wellington Water chairperson Nick Leggett’s resignation in the wake of a damning report, The Post understands.

The Wellington region’s mayors were briefed on the report, showing some repairs were costing up to three times what they should, at 8am on Monday with councillors briefed immediately afterwards.

Upper Hutt mayor Wayne Guppy said Leggett had no choice but to resign for the “absolute disgrace”.

Wellington City councillor Nureddin Abdurahman also called for accountability.

“I am calling for [Leggett] to come to a full meeting of the council to explain how this was allowed to happen and to give us confidence in his leadership of Wellington Water and how he is going to fix it,” he said.

Sources have confirmed Wellington City councillors talked after the briefing and there was near unanimity for Leggett to resign with one councillor, Diane Calvert, calling for them to first read and digest the information before making any big calls.

But he has staunch allies, with Porirua mayor Anita Baker saying calls for his head were “just stupid” as Leggett, with new chief executive Pat Dougherty, were the ones who had uncovered the problems and were working hard to fix them.

Wellington Water Committee deputy chairperson Ros Connelly also said Leggett, with Dougherty, were the ones unearthing the problems.

“What exactly does Wellington City want? Would they rather not know?” she said. “Nick has led the charge at accountability and transparency.”

Wellington mayor Tory Whanau said she was “gathering views from my councillors and will report back to the other mayors/chairs in due course”.

Wellington City councillor Sarah Free said the last chief executive, Tonia Haskell, resigned in 2024 “but we have to ask whether other resignations are now in order”.

She would not say who she thought should resign but said the board had four major reports it had failed to act on. There was an inquiry into a lack of fluoride in 2022, a subsequent FieldForce report finding excessive costs, a $51m accounting error in 2024, and now this.

The latest report found serious issues with Wellington Water systems that resulted in some work costing three times what it should have when compared to other councils.

Wellington Water is owned by Wellington City, Greater Wellington, Porirua, Hutt City, Upper Hutt and South Wairarapa councils.

Leggett said it was time for cooler heads and most of the issues pre-dated his time at the top.

“We have to think this is a relatively new board and chief executive that has uncovered these issues and are fixing them,” he said.

Leggett took over as chairperson in September 2023, while Dougherty took over as chief executive in 2024.

Wellington Water did not have long to go before it was being wound up to be replaced by a planned new water entity, Leggett said.

Leggett is also the chief executive of Infrastructure NZ, an infrastructure member association. It was a conflict of interest he had been managing and he was not involved in contractor discussions, he said.