About the Long-term Plan

What is the Long-term Plan or LTP?

The LTP is a 10-year budgeted plan that council puts together once every three years that sets out its work programme and what it will provide for the community.

It is essentially the council ’s contract with the community, setting out:

What services council will deliver
How we will ensure quality and delivery
How we will look after the community’s assets
What the community will have to pay for these (borrowing, fees & charges, rates)

Why do we do an LTP?

The LTP supports the community and council to make decisions about where best to put council’s time and the community’s money. What are the most important activities that should continue, and where should council invest more?
If we are doing more – then in what areas are we going to do less, or how are we going to pay for improvements?
It requires a long-term focus, so that we are still in good financial shape in 10 years, and our assets are in kept in good condition for future generations.
It sets the deliverables that council is required to report against – to make sure that council does what it says it will.

Why is the LTP such a big deal?

Projects and initiatives must be included in the LTP or Annual Plan for council to deliver these. If it’s significant expenditure, and it’s not in either of these documents then legally council cannot do the work.

In getting the balance right between delivering services, and the cost, council needs to review all the following as part of the LTP process:

Strategic Direction
Activity Area Plans
Asset Management Plans
Infrastructure Strategy
Financial Strategy
Revenue & Financing Policy
Development Contribution Policy

How do we do an LTP?

An LTP takes:
- Ideas and direction from the council ’s vision for where we want the community to be in 10 years.
- Ideas from the business managers on what is working and performing well, and where investment or changes are needed, and
- Ideas from the community, on what it needs and wants.
All the ideas get boiled down into the best options, weighing up the priorities and the affordability of those against the overall budget.
And then the community has its say on the final shape of the plan – is it happy with what council will deliver and when, and what that will cost?
After taking the community’s views into account, the LTP is adopted setting council ’s work programme and deliverables for the next 10 years. The plan is reviewed after three years and a new Long-term Plan prepared.

When do we do an LTP?

There is a robust planning process demanded by the Local Government Act 2002 (part 6).

In consultation with our communities, we review and update our Long-term Plan every three years, to make sure it is current and reflects the needs and wants of the community.

All councils must prepare a LTP Consultation Document and an LTP Proper. Both need to get audited before they go out to the community, so we must allocate time for Audit NZ to review and approve our mahi.

Task	Completion date
What's in your future events and conversation stations	August and September 2023
Have your say - closing date for surveys	4 September 2023
Council approves draft Consultation Document, ready for review by Audit NZ	3 May 2024
Audit NZ review and approve the Consultation Document ready for publication	31 May 2024
Community consultation and submissions open	4 June to 5 July 2024
Hearings and deliberations	August/September 2024
Council adopt Long-term Plan	30 September 2024