Decisions made on our Long-term Plan

After a huge amount of feedback (1418 submissions) and two full days of deliberating, our councillors have made important decisions on our Long-term Plan.

This plan sets out our projects and priorities for the next 10 years so it’s a big deal. Thank you to everyone for having your say and helping shape the Taupō District for the next decade.

Here's a summary of the key decisions that have been made:

Bag it or bin it?

Bag it! Your feedback was overwhelmingly in favour of sticking with bags rather than switching to rates-funded wheelie bins, and councillors agreed. The current kerbside rubbish and recycling service will remain.

Do we have the balance right?

Yes! Our draft Long-term Plan proposed to focus on doing the essentials well. That means continuing to invest in our infrastructure so that our pipes, water networks and roads remain in good shape. Most of our feedback agreed with this approach, so we have left the draft plan largely unchanged.

Tūrangi & Taupō Wastewater

Yes to short to medium term options. The Council confirmed the short to medium-term options for managing wastewater that were set out in the draft plan and consultation document.

Should we help ease the housing crisis?

Yes - we will partner with a consortium to provide 42 quality first home options. The consortium will build and sell these houses.

Rates

You can find out your projected rates for this year at www.taupodc.govt.nz/ratessearch. We will know final rates numbers when we adopt the Long-term Plan around the end of September but they are unlikely to be significantly different.

Targeted rates for water and sewerage are going up, which reflects the fact that three waters infrastructure is now remaining with councils.

Changes to Fees & Charges

Yes to increasing user pays fees and charges. Many of our fees for things like pool entry and using our facilities and venues are partly subsidised by rates. We proposed shifting the balance so that more of this cost is borne by the person using the service, rather than the ratepayer.

The only change from the draft schedule of fees and charges was to adjust the building site inspection minimum fee down from $245 an hour to a 45-minute minimum which will cost $181, with extra time being charged in 15-minute increments.

Other decisions

• We included a project to connect the toilets at the Waipāhīhī Botanical Reserve to the Taupō sewerage system.
• We added in $300,000 to prepare a new Water Services Delivery Plan, which will be required by upcoming central government legislation. This is a massive piece of work that will involve a lot of time, effort and expertise, hence the cost.
• We included a project in years four and five of the plan to address odour at the Taupō Wastewater Treatment Plant.
• We have shifted some of our footpath funding to Wairākei Drive.
• We have moved $35,000 of our playground funding forward to year one of the plan so we can make improvements more quickly.
• We adopted a new Community Funding Policy and Community Funding Eligibility and Assessment Framework, but made a few changes based on feedback, including shifting one-off funds to two rounds per year.
• We changed our rating differential to bring the rates for electricity generators into line with our commercial/industrial ratepayers.

What happens next?

We’ll incorporate all this into our Long-term Plan, along with all the finance numbers and other supporting information. The team from Audit New Zealand will then go through it all and might request some changes as a result. Following the audit, we expect to adopt the Long-term Plan by 30 September.

If you made a submission, we’ll write to you once the Long-term Plan has been adopted and let you know what was decided on the issues you talked to us about.