Council confirms options and projects in its Long-term Plan

After a huge amount of public feedback and two full days of deliberating, Taupō District councillors have made a range of decisions in relation to the council’s Long-term Plan.

The Long-term Plan sets out the council’s projects and priorities for the next 10 years. In all, 1418 submissions were received, and all were considered carefully. Councillors spent two days hearing verbal submissions and two days deliberating before making a series of key decisions.

The draft Long-term Plan consultation document asked four key questions of the community; about council’s proposed approach, about whether to switch to wheelie bins, whether to provide first-home buyer options on council-owned land, and how to resolve wastewater issues in Taupō and Tūrangi.

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

The draft Long-term Plan proposed to focus on doing the essentials well, defined as continuing to invest in water and transport infrastructure to keep these assets in good shape. Most feedback agreed with this approach. The Council also confirmed the short to medium-term options for managing wastewater that were set out in the draft plan. In regard to its East Urban Lands, the Council has decided it will partner with a consortium to provide 42 quality first home options. The consortium will build and sell these houses. The majority of submitter feedback agreed with this proposal.

While rates will be rising in the current financial year, the amount differs depending on where a property is and what it is used for. Most of the increase is to targeted rates for water and sewerage, which reflects the fact that three waters infrastructure is now remaining with councils. Council also had to add extra money into the Long-term Plan to budget for preparing a Water Services Delivery Plan, which is anticipated to be required by central government in the next one to two years.

Many fees for things like pool entry and using council facilities and venues are partly subsidised by rates. The draft Long-term Plan 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 to 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.

Projects that were not in the draft Long-term Plan but added in as a result of feedback include projects to connect the toilets at the Waipāhīhī Botanical Reserve to the Taupō sewerage system and to address odour at the Taupō Wastewater Treatment Plant, bringing forward some playground funding to year one of the plan, shifting some footpath funding to Wairākei Drive in response to a community request. Council also 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.

Taupō District Mayor David Trewavas says councillors and council staff put a lot of thought and time into preparing the plan, and the response from the community was extremely helpful in confirming that the general thrust of the plan to focus on the essentials was the correct one.

“We received many insightful and thoughtful submissions on the plan which influenced our thinking,” Mr Trewavas says. “Probably the most significant piece of feedback was that the proposed switch to wheelie bins would have been difficult for some of our residents and ratepayers in our diverse district.

“Many of the costs in this plan are driven by factors outside council’s control. Inflation has pushed up the cost of infrastructure projects; and changes from central government, such as bringing waters services back under council control, have also had a big impact.

“Councils around the country have grappled with similar issues and many have had little option but to increase rates. We have worked hard to keep the rates increases in this plan as low as we can.

“Thank you for having your say and helping shape the Taupō District for the next decade.”

The next step is for the plan to be audited. Council expects to adopt the Long-term Plan by 30 September.