Projects

Council needed commercial analysis of a range of business opportunities associated with the development of the Shell Cove Marina, culminating in a number of recommendations for Council. Morrison Low developed governance, capital and returns matrix models for comparative evaluation.

Corrections have a significant portfolio, with critical assets across the country. The organisation has set a goal to deliver exemplar strategic asset management. This required change in the way things were done. A higher level of asset management practice was being sought to support sound decision making and to effectively manage risk. Morrison Low has supported them on this journey.

Auckland Council's Parks Sports and Recreation Department (now known as the Community Services and Facility Units) commissioned Morrison Low to assist with identifying significant savings in the proposed ten year renewal budgets for the regional and local sports parks activities, as part of the 2015 Long Term Plan process.

Auckland Council set itself up to focus on the “housing crisis” it faces. Morrison Low has provided assistance over the past six years on a range of areas.

Morrison Low was engaged to provide advice and manage the procurement process to identify a Community Housing Provider to partner with Auckland Council. This new partnership was tasked to manage an older persons housing portfolio of 1,412 properties with the aim of improving services and upgrading the existing standard of housing to ultimately increase the number of properties.

Morrison Low was brought in by the three former councils merged into the Cumberland Council. Holroyd, Auburn and Parramatta City Councils engaged us to develop a merger transition plan to guide what, at that stage, was a likely merger in the future. Within ten days of starting the project, the merger was announced. The new council was in a good position to undertake the immediate transition requirements due to the pre-merger preparation. The priority was to ensure that customers were able to conduct the usual business and informed staff were enabled to do so.

Challenging the assumption that existing renewal forecasts are realistic was key to a partnership project between Morrison Low and a rural district council, intended to test the theory of asset design lives and service levels against available data.

The Local Government Commission (the Commission) is utilising a reformed approach to investigate re-organisation proposals for the Wairarapa. The Commission has developed six potential Local Government Options in conjunction with the community, Councillors from the Wairarapa and the Greater Wellington Regional Council. The options range from the Status Quo, a Wairarapa District Council through to a Wairarapa Unitary Council. Included in the options are potential new governance structures that would involve sharing governance responsibilities between the regional and district council. If implemented, these will be a first for New Zealand.

Morrison Low has been jointly engaged by Gunnedah and Liverpool Plains Shire Councils to develop a shared services model that will implement their resource sharing strategy. The two councils entered into a resource sharing strategy which identified objectives and guiding principles.

A high level ‘health check’ on the financial health and ability of the Kaikoura and Hurunui Councils to deliver substantial rebuild programmes as a result of the devastating Kaikoura earthquakes of 2016.