The Whakatāne District Council has adopted its 2015-25 Long Term Plan (LTP) and associated supporting documents.

Following an extensive and detailed development process, the LTP, Development Contributions Policy, Significance and Engagement Policy, Rates Remission and Postponement Policies, Fees and Charges for 2015/16 and Waste Management and Minimisation Plan were all adopted at an extraordinary Council meeting on Tuesday, 30 June 2015.

The Council’s Rates Resolution for 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016 was also adopted, setting out the general and targeted rates to be applied for the 2015/16 financial year, and the dates that rates instalments and water rates will fall due.

Speaking at the meeting, Mayor Tony Bonne described the LTP as a “very substantial piece of work”, which set out an excellent path for the District. “A huge amount of staff and elected member time has gone into the development of the Long Term Plan, preparation of the consultation document for the community’s consideration and then the hearing of submissions and deliberations process,” he says. “Where possible, those submissions have been built into the LTP and I think the result is a well-balanced planning document which allows the District to make progress in some key areas, while keeping rates costs affordable.”

Key components include caps on rate increases and debt levels. Rates increases are capped at the Local Government Cost Index (a measure of the actual cost increases applying to council activities nationally), plus two percent. Projected average rate increases are well below that level, beginning with a 3.21 percent average increase for 2015/16, with subsequent years’ increases ranging from 1.3 to 3.84 percent. Debt levels are capped at a maximum of $75 million, but again, actual debt is expected to fall well below that level.

Speaking to the various recommendations in the report, Councillor Russell Orr said that of the four Long Term Plans he had been associated with, the 2015-25 LTP was the most readable and informative document he had seen produced by any Council.