How do we plan for the future when the current environment is so uncertain?

Local government in New Zealand has been working through the implications of a number of reform programmes (Three Waters, RMA and Future for Local Government). The new government has repealed some of the legislative changes and are working on new laws and regulations – this creates a lot of uncertainty, which makes long term planning difficult. On top of this, New Zealand has been grappling with significant inflation and interest rate increases, increasing prices not just for households, but for local government as well.Yet despite these challenges, we need to plan ahead

For our district to be a vibrant, passionate, progressive place we must continue to look ahead and make future-focussed decisions.

We need to strike a balance between what is affordable and essential in these uncertain times, and what we really need to progress with to ensure this district remains not just a well-serviced community, but a place that puts people at the heart of everything we do. We’ve developed a draft plan that we think will do just that.

We’ve kept affordability front and centre in drafting this plan. Removing and deferring projects, and proposing to change how we account for some of our assets in a bid to keep costs down. Even with all these efforts, we believe we need to collect an additional $8 million in rates for the year ahead, just to continue to deliver our services, and the projects we MUST deliver. How the $8 million increase affects your property will vary widely depending on the services you receive, with those connected to water and wastewater services seeing the largest increases. As an example, the median property in our district valued at $700,000 would see a $483 increase if they receive all Council services, or $232  increase if they do not receive services.  You can see exactly how the proposed rates increase will affect you by searching your address on the home page of this site

This document outlines the key challenges we’re facing and how we’re proposing to tackle them to make good, future focussed decisions that reflect the needs of our people. There are lots of opportunities to give us your feedback throughout – we really need input from the community to help us gauge whether we’re on the right track.

There are some complex issues, some tough decisions, and some areas where we have no choice but to proceed. It makes this a lengthy document! But we want to be really clear and transparent with the community, sharing all of these options and considerations – and we invite you to take the opportunity to read and understand the issues and share your own perspectives with us