Proposed rates increase stays steady despite tumultuous year
Keeping the rates increase steady against a tumultuous year has been no easy feat, but maintaining the limit set through the Long Term Plan was a key priority, said Waipā District Council Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Ken Morris.
Rates across the district are proposed to rise by an average of 4.3 percent for the 2022/23 year, despite the district facing many challenges over the past year, said Morris.
“Since we approved the Long Term Plan in June 2021, the economic climate has changed dramatically. Inflation is driving up prices in record amounts, which in turn could impact the costs and timing of the services we provide to our community.
“We’ve had to take a hard look at our work programmes to identify where we can tighten our belts in order to keep Waipā rates within the limits set in the Long Term Plan.”
One area of change that continues to be an issue across the district is recycling contamination, which has resulted in increases in service costs.
“Over the past 12 months we have constantly seen contamination by the way of rubbish bags, medical waste, oil and other undesirables in our recycling bins and its simply not on. Our Waipā residents can do better.
“Contamination costs us all, and if we don’t start to rein this in, we might have to change the way we provide the service,” added Morris.
Some of the options Council is considering are increasing the annual recycling charge, undertaking more recycling audits or reducing the number of collections to offset the increasing cost of disposing of the contaminated materials to landfill.
Another change to the Long Term Plan is deferring $5.28m for the Te Awamutu – Ngā Roto – Pirongia cycleway by one year to 2022/23, due to delays in achieving landowner agreements for the favoured off-road section.
The third major change is the timeframe to implement the Council’s urban mobility programme, designed to improve connections across Te Awamutu, Kihikihi and Cambridge, due to Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency not able to fully fund the requested 51 percent co-share.
“Council remains committed to delivering the urban mobility programme for our communities so we will continue to do the preliminary design work for these pathways so we’re ready to go when co-funding becomes available,” Morris said.
A public consultation document sets out the three major changes from the Long Term Plan for the Annual Plan. Waipā Mayor Jim Mylchreest also encouraged residents who were interested to read the full draft 2022/23 Annual Plan itself.
“I encourage residents who are interested in further detail to take a look at the full document, it’s only 84 pages and it’s all there in the content.”
Rather than hitting the consultation road with COVID-19 protocols and Omicron sweeping the country, public consultation will take an innovative new direction for the Annual Plan this year, said Morris.
“We know people are trying to limit interactions and public gatherings at present, so we’ve put together an online webinar series called ‘A Cuppa with your Council’ where people can head online to learn about the draft 2022/23 Annual Plan.
“Our elected members and staff will make a short presentation but the majority of the session caters for questions from our community.
“We want to make sure our community has their say throughout this consultation period, so we’ve taken an innovative approach and created this series in lieu of face-to-face meetings which are simply not socially responsible at this time. It’s our way of offering the same open discussions for our ratepayers from the comfort of their own homes.”
The ‘Cuppa with your Council’ series covers the district with events for Ohaupo, Pirongia, Te Awamutu, Kihikihi, Cambridge and Karāpiro, as well as topic-specific business and rural sector webinars. From Friday, people can register to attend a webinar by heading to bit.ly/3CKRtc9.
“We know our farmers and rural landowners often shoulder larger rate bills due to their larger land size, and we acknowledge that, and we want to talk with them, and hear their questions,” Morris said.
Consultation opens on Friday 18 March and will run until 5pm, Wednesday 20 April. The full draft 2022/23 Annual Plan, consultation document and submission forms will be available from this Friday 18 March at waipadc.govt.nz/letstalkannualplan, with people encouraged to have their say online, via email, in person at a Waipā District Council office or library, or by post.
From Friday 18 March, ratepayers can also find out their proposed 2022/23 rates by heading online to bit.ly/3tXmS78, emailing info@waipadc.govt.nz or by phoning 0800 WAIPADC (924 723).
