Helping Councils be "Better Together!"

Give Us Your Ideas

Co-Lab is owned by the twelve Waikato local authorities:

  • Hamilton City
  • Hauraki District
  • Matamata-Piako District
  • Otorohanga District
  • Rotorua Lakes
  • South Waikato District
  • Thames-Coromandel District
  • Waikato District
  • Waikato Regional
  • Waipa District
  • Waitomo District
  • Western Bay of Plenty District

As part of its role of developing opportunities Co-Lab is always on the lookout for great ideas, and we know great ideas can come from anywhere.

So if you have a problem that needs solving or can see an opportunity, we would love to hear from you. You can do this by filling in the form below. We can’t promise it will get looked at straight away (we are a very small team), but at least if we know about it, we can starting thinking about it – and if we hear the same thing from other councils in Waikato, it may well float to the top of what we look at.

A bit about us

Co-Lab was established back in 2005 to help the councils collaborate and identify opportunities for undertaking activity together. Over the last couple of years, it has been through a transformation:

  1. Co-Lab now has a small core team (previously looked after by a part-time contractor); and
  2. The governance structure has changed: The Board has reduced to six members – an independent Chair and five Council Representative Directors.

The company has two roles:

  1. It is a laboratory for developing opportunities that benefit councils, either by improving the experience of their communities or by making the councils themselves, collectively, more efficient and effective; and
  2. It provides services to councils where a business case to do so has been established (recognising that it may make sense for some services to be provided by someone other than Co-Lab).

You can find out more about Co-Lab and what we are up to by going to our latest Statement of Intent here, or have a look around our website.

Your Idea

If you have an idea for a project that Co-Lab can be involved in then complete the form below. We welcome all ideas. Thank you.