Message from the Mayor

This year’s Annual Plan is the most extraordinary process New Zealand councils will ever experience, with the usually dominant Annual or Long Term plans having to share the spotlight with the critical ‘Water Done Well’ consultation.

Add to this, further cluttering of the system with councils being muzzled from 11 July when pre-election restrictions exclude councils from undertaking any consultation. You can see council’s dilemma, with so much information needing to be shared with you in such an impossibly short time. The next few months will test us all, but I thank you for taking the time to undertake your due diligence and we look forward to working with you as we confront this barrage.

I am proud that our council chose to undertake the full Long Term Plan (LTP) last year. You will remember, for the first time councils were offered two options; stick with the scheduled LTP, or councils could elect to delay for a year and only do an Annual Plan (AP), due to the uncertainties around three waters. As you may recall, the difference being that an LTP is the more comprehensive process, charting the council’s direction for the next 10 years and placing a huge focus on setting budgets, determining timing and priority of projects. On the other hand, the AP only signals noteable variations from what was determined in the LTP.

By going through the exhaustive LTP process last year our council is in a far stronger position, having faced up to the harsh reality and some challenging budgets we have been able to plot with greater certainty. It also gave us a greater understanding of our three waters burden. Consequently, we have been able to manoeuvre through the ‘Water Done Well’ negotiations, leading to collaborative discussions between other councils with greater certainty. The fact that this year’s AP generally reflects the trajectories determined last year and will enable our district to focus on what will be a colossal decision when, in May, we embrace you all again and try and formulate our stance after consultation on the all-important ‘Water Done Well’.

A new and disturbing trend appeared with last year’s LTP, and we have no doubt the same will happen this year, where a small and often confused group insisted on running their own public meetings and Facebook-unfounded accusations ahead of council’s fully audited and fact-checked process. Our sympathy goes out to those of you that were unnecessarily upset or influenced by this group. We are legally obligated to go to extraordinary lengths to ensure the information you receive is scrutinised and factually verified. To have the entire process stained and distorted is frustrating, but we will continue to focus entirely on our responsibility to you, because the facts are challenging enough.

We indicated during last year’s LTP that this year would see the financial consequences of the three waters debacle, with 89.4% of this year’s rate rises being attributed to roading, waste management and three waters. We will not be able to make any significant changes until we sort this never-ending saga, which is why May’s ‘Water Done Well’ consultation is so important. Unfortunately, this won’t happen until after the rates are set.

Early work on this year’s plan has managed to identify savings of just over 3%, bringing the anticipated average rise to 16.61% (which is still ungodly). Further work will continue, but with council shackled to the regulatory changes presently in place, and virtually all increases attributed to core services, the situation remains as dire as we predicted last year. Please be aware that ‘average’ rates conceal the fact that three waters is predominantly carried by our urban communities.

This was always going to be a difficult year. I want you to know we are doing everything we can to change our trajectory, and there has never been a greater need for your consideration and input so please embrace the process. Send in your submission and possibly even back it up with a verbal presentation. We need to hear from you, and we thank you for your assistance.

Onwards and Upwards.

Bryan Cadogan
Mayor