The Whakatāne District Council has adopted the consultation document for its 2018-28 Long Term Plan (LTP), and other draft supporting documents, for public consultation.
The consultation document - "Shaping our Tomorrow - Ngā rā anamata" - will be printed and distributed to households, businesses and organisations throughout the District, and the Council is seeking community feedback, through formal or informal submissions, between 23 March and 23 April.
A focus of the consultation document is the need to plan for major infrastructure investments, particularly in water supply, wastewater and stormwater systems, over the next 10 years. Mayor Tony Bonne says resource consent replacements will require major upgradings to bring systems up to current environmental and operating standards.
"To deal with those costs, our proposed budgets for 2018-28 focus on the 'must-dos', with spending on other projects tightly constrained," he says. "Another consideration is our vulnerability to climate change and natural hazards, and the need to plan for and respond to the impacts of these events on our District."
He says there has been no choice but to take a 'no frills' approach, with a number of projects and service improvements either reconsidered or deferred. "A key question the consultation document asks is: 'have we got our priorities right?' We’re very keen to hear the community’s views so that we can be sure we’ve found an appropriate balance between progress and affordability.”
Specific feedback is also sought on:
- A proposal to ‘equalise’ Murupara's water and wastewater system costs - equalisation would mean that connected properties in Murupara would pay the same for those services as ratepayers in other communities. While this would make future upgrades more affordable, it would have an immediate impact on rates for Murupara properties and contribute to a potential 25 percent increase in 2018/19;
- A proposed $150,000 increase in the budget for tourism and events (to be funded largely through the targeted district growth rate on businesses, with $50,000 to come from the Harbour Fund).
Alongside the LTP, the Council is also consulting on several other proposals and policies, including the 2018-21 Fees and Charges; LTP supporting policies (Significance and Engagement Policy, Revenue and Financing Policy, and Development Contributions Policy); the implementation of Financial Contributions for roading and reserves; and proposed upgrades to the Whakatāne boat ramp area.
Information on those proposals, and the various supporting documents the LTP is based on, is available on our website.
The planning and consultation process is set-out in the Local Government Act, which requires the Council to develop and adopt a long term plan every three years. The LTP must be finalised and adopted before 1 July, following public consultation, submissions, hearings and deliberations.