Long Term Plan 2021 - 2031 formally adopted.
Yesterday the Council formally adopted the Long Term Plan (LTP) 2021 - 2031. Five key proposals were consulted on as part of the LTP including increased investment in roads and footpaths, a review of the outdated District Plan, a fortnightly urban rubbish collection and tourism/business support.
273 matters raised in submissions from 71 people were received, the majority of the submissions agreed with the proposals ranging from 64% (tourism/business support) through to 73% (urban rubbish collection).
Mayor Craig Mackle commented “It’s great to see that all of the proposed options were well supported. It shows we are on track to deliver changes and improvements in line with what the majority of the community want.”
The Council did not receive the full amount requested from Waka Kotahi to help fund the roading programme, this has resulted in a total shortfall of $2,293k over the three-year period from 2021 – 2023. Instead of postponing the work the Council has agreed to reduce the operating programme to 90% and to fund the shortfall of NZTA subsidy for operations through the roading rate, and continue with the capital programme as originally proposed with the capital works subsidy shortfall loan funded over 15 years.
“We all use roads, this is how we get around the district and roading is one of the main activities of Council, contributing significantly to total annual costs.” Mackle says, “We have decided we need to do the work now, as any delays to the roading programme could result in much greater costs in the future.”
The footpath subsidy from Waka Kotahi was also considerably less than expected. “We have heard from the community over a number of years about the state of our footpaths. While we do not have the full subsidy that we expected, the Council agree that we need to up our game and continue with the original proposal to maintain and upgrade our footpaths.” said Mackle.
This has resulted in an overall rate increase of 5.4% for 2021/2022, and a ten-year average increase of 3.3%.
Other submissions requested financial support for the Mayfair Theatre, Kaikōura Cycling Club (KCC), Te Korowai. The Council has responded with proposals to allow a one-off grant of $15,000 each to the Mayfair and KCC (both grants to be paid from unspent economic development funds). Te Korowai will receive a one off grant of $10,000 and $2500 has been allocated to Vetcare to support responsible cat ownership with a focus on desexing and microchipping cats (both grants from unspent environmental funds).
$5000 has been allocated to the Kēkerengū Community Hall (from unallocated funds from the District Grants Fund). The Council will continue to contribute to Sports Tasman, iSite and the Kaikōura Museum.
View the full documents here www.kaikoura.govt.nz/our-council/plans-reports-bylaws-and-policies/
29 July 2021
