JO 27 Feb - 4 Mar
No 940
LAKES WEEKLY BULLETIN
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LOCALLY OWNED SINCE FOREVER
60 IN SI
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Taking a little longer on the Long Term Plan Earlier this month, Council formally deferred its Long Term Plan (LTP) process. This decision was not taken lightly. It was necessary following the coalition government’s formal direction at the end of last year to bring planning and delivery of three waters infrastructure back onto councils’ books for Years 3-10 of the LTP. Under the former government, councils were only including three waters for Years 1 and 2. This is significant. As a Council, we’ve spent countless hours working with staff to figure out how we’re going to do this. And I’ve got to be frank, we’re looking at these figures and preparing for some uncomfortable conversations and very tough decisions around priorities and what this means for rates increases. Councils across New Zealand are all in the same boat– affordability is going to be a challenge for all of us. To put it into context, three waters makes up close to 60% of the Council’s capital expenditure programme. That’s a huge chunk and will affect our ability to invest in important community facilities and services. The sad part is we need these facilities and services more than ever before to maintain wellbeing, resilience and connection in our growing communities.
Opponents of the proposed 24-villa, Waimarino Luxury Lodge overlooking Bob’s Cove have launched a Givealittle fundraising campaign to help fight the proposal in the Environment Court in April. It says the group is made up of ‘long-term local residents with strong community connections who aim to “protect and preserve the outstanding natural landscape and ecological biodiversity of Bob’s Cove”. See story page 3
Costs are increasing across the board but revenue is not keeping pace. There is a huge body of work underway to investigate alternative funding sources. As Mayor I continue to actively lobby Wellington on the affordability challenges we have been working so hard over many years to address. While a visitor levy might still be on the table, it looks more likely to be collected and allocated at a national level, meaning it may not benefit us in the ways we need. There’s still a lot of uncertainty but what we do know is that we can’t just keep taking extra rates, year on year. Something’s got to give.
NOW DELIVERY WITH
While we’ll be consulting on the draft LTP and adopting it later than usual we’ll still be opening applications for community grants in April. We’ll need to tighten our belts but it’s always an important opportunity for Council to provide support to the fantastic community efforts happening across the district. More on that soon. We’re hopeful that the coalition government will begin to up the pace on discussions for local government revenue streams. In the meantime, we need to play the hand we’ve been dealt and do what we can to reprioritise our investment programme and limit the impact on ratepayers as much as we can. The draft 2024-2034 Long Term Plan will be out for consultation towards the end of June – I really encourage you all to consider what’s proposed and take part in the process.
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Mayor Glyn Lewers
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