Photo: povalec/123RF
New Plymouth homeowners can expect residential rates rises averaging 9.9 percent if its draft 10-year plan is adopted.
Mayor Neil Holdom released his recommendations for the $3 billion draft plan today which included an investment of about $1.9b in water and transport infrastructure.
New initiatives included identifying a route for a ring road around New Plymouth to reduce the number of trucks on its streets and planning a second bridge over the Waiwhakaiho River to improve resilience.
New sources of fresh water were also on the agenda.
Holdom said the draft plan focused on investment in core infrastructure designed to future-proof the district but was wary the organisation was grappling with the ongoing impacts of global economic turmoil that had seen costs skyrocket for everyone.
"We have a draft plan which we want people in New Plymouth district to read and understand. Then we want to hear what the people we serve think about our plans, what are our community's collective priorities and aspirations and where people believe we could do better."
Holdom said the council was focused on finding a balance between the need to keep rates affordable with investment in critical infrastructure and initiatives that help keep the district on course to achieving its vision of a Sustainable Lifestyle Capital.
"The global fiscal downturn, construction inflation at record levels, interest rates rising, and the cost-of-living crisis has put huge pressure on everyone, and we have to strike the balance between rates affordability and the need to adequately maintain and grow our core infrastructure to service current and future generations.
Improving efficiency, growing non-rates revenue and delivering measurable environmental performance would also be a focus.
"Council is restructuring to align our organisation with our strategy. These changes will ensure we are set up for the changes coming, can better deliver services and investments in our core infrastructure while achieving operational efficiencies of around $100 million over the next 10 years."
Based on the councils current proposals, an average residential rate increase of 9.9 percent was identified in year one, and around 6.9 percent in year two, but the Holdom warned that was to change as tough decisions were made on what stayed in or came out of the plan.
"We are reassessing our priorities, taking a more commercial approach by considering where can we generate more non-rates revenue, capture the benefits of growth, work in partnership with mana whenua and deliver better long-term community outcomes."
Council would make interim decisions on the draft plan next week before approving a draft consultation document in February which will go out to the public the following month.
The Mayoral recommendation for the next 10 years is built around five objectives:
Future-proofing our district:
- Investing more in the district's water, wastewater, stormwater and transport expenditure to almost $1.9b.
- Identify a route for a ring road to the port to get trucks out of town.
- Find new water sources for our growing population.
- Planning a second crossing over the Waiwhakaiho River to improve our resilience.
- Ramp up investment in the district's disaster recovery reserve to help cover the costs of dealing with climate change and severe weather events.
- Lifting investment in Venture Taranaki to diversify and strengthen Taranaki's economy.
Efficiency
- Establish a Taranaki water entity with neighbouring councils.
- Restructuring our operations to maximise value for money and save $100m.
- Ensure developers pay their fair share of infrastructure costs.
Community development
- Growing council's provision of social housing, boosted by a multimillion-dollar housing development fund.
- Supporting Iwi and hapu with capability as a partner, helping speed up consent processing and improving the quality of development in our district.
- Boosting funding to community boards to enable local decision making in Kaitaki, Inglewood, Bell Block, Waitara and Clifton.
Sustainability
- Wastewater project Urenui and Onaero to clean up our waterways.
- Tackle sewage overflows in Inglewood.
- Deal with flooding in Waitara.
- Plant our place and tap into the emissions trading scheme.
- Piloting a high frequency city bus route to grow public transport utilisation.
Paying something forward
- Building a multisport facility at the racecourse.
- Working with the Taranaki Foundation and businesses on Destination Play at Kawaroa and Otupaiia Marine Park Waitara.
- Finding new revenue sources to reduce costs.
- Establishing a sustainable lifestyle capital savings fund over the next decade by reinvesting a proportion of the dividends from the perpetual investment fund into a reserve to cover future infrastructure costs.
Timeline:
12 December 2023
Mayor and Councillors to make interim decisions on draft 10-Year Plan 2023-2024.
February 2024
Mayor and Councillors will adopt the draft consultation document and go out for public consultation.
March 2024
Public feedback sought on draft 10-Year Plan 2024-2034.
June 2024
Mayor and Councillors adopt final plan.