Annual Plan 2023/24

This consultation is now closed.  Submissions were open for four weeks from Friday 24 March to Monday 24 April 2023.

Our Annual Plan sets out what we plan to do over the next 12 months to achieve outcomes we identified in our Long Term Plan 2021-31 (LTP). The Annual Plan outlines the council’s activities for the coming year and includes detailed budgets.

Councils often don't consult on their Annual Plans as they generally reflect what is forecast in an LTP, which has been consulted on. However, because we are proposing some changes to what was in the LTP, we want your feedback.

Check out the consultation document to read more about the two key proposals that we want feedback on as well as the proposed rates increase.

Don't want to read the consultation document?

No problem, we've pulled out the key points below...

In this Annual Plan we are proposing an 8.63 per cent rise in the total rates take.

We have done everything we can to keep this increase in line with the 5 per cent rise that was forecast in the LTP. However, due to record levels of inflation, the cost of projects the council has committed to in our LTP have gone up much more than we could have predicted. To keep this increase as low as possible, we have delayed some of the projects that we committed to.

We are proposing to partner with the Turner Centre to better deliver arts and culture for the district.

We are proposing to do this by taking over ownership of the Turner Centre building. This will give the charitable trust-owned entity, which will continue to manage the facility, the space and scope to do what it does best; deliver arts programming at a community and commercial level. We want to know if you think the council should take over ownership of the Turner Centre building to ensure it can continue to operate as a regional asset.

We are proposing a new rates remission policy to enable housing development on Māori Freehold Land

Council is required by legislation to enable housing development on Māori Freehold Land through the remission of rates. The proposed policy will give Māori Freehold Landowners the opportunity to apply for reduced rates if they intend to develop the land to provide housing. This will provide immediate social benefits to whānau, and longer-term benefits to the entire district through future rates contributions once the development is complete. We want to know if you support the conditions we are proposing or if we should make some amendments. We are required to have this policy so not adopting it is not an option.