The Whakatāne District’s draft Annual Plan 2014/15 has been sent to Audit New Zealand for review before being notified for public submissions.

The unapproved draft Annual Plan was presented to the Whakatāne District Council’s Policy Committee last week and, if adopted after community feedback has been received and considered, would see proposed rates costs across the District increase by an average of 2.91 percent in 2014/15.

The 2014/15 financial year represents the third year of the Council’s 2012-22 Long Term Plan (LTP) and the programme of activities proposed is largely unchanged. The LTP signalled an expected average rates increase of 2.74 percent for the year, capped at a maximum of 4.5 percent, depending on the level of cost increases all Councils face, as identified by the national Local Government Cost Index.

Mayor Tony Bonne says rates affordability remains a major focus for the Council, and Councillors were “absolutely determined” that the average increase would not exceed three percent.

“Increases in the actual costs of providing solid waste, water and wastewater services will have an impact on rates across the District, while changes in property capital values resulting from last year’s Quotable Value assessments also have varying effects,” he explains. “As a result, the actual increases which apply would vary from area to area and property to property.”

Indicative changes range from a reduction of 5.34 percent for a higher-value Matatā property to the 3.98 percent increase forecast for lower-value urban properties in Whakatāne.

“While some of the indicative rate changes are higher than we would like, we were particularly pleased to see solid reductions achieved for Matatā properties, where the costs of disaster recovery projects have seen significant increases since the 2005 debris flows,” Mr Bonne says.

The audited draft Annual Plan is expected to be adopted on 27 February and will be available for community consultation and submissions from 21 March till 22 April. A summary of the draft plan, including a table of indicative rates charges, will be distributed to all households and post box holders before the end of March.