We called for submissions on our Long Term Plan (LTP) for 2024-34, which contains our plans and budgets for our work in the District for the next 10 years.
Just like all councils across the country, we're experiencing increasing costs due to inflation, rising construction, insurance and interest costs, and the need to fund infrastructure for growth.
We've been through a careful process to draft a plan that incorporates the impacts of:
- inflation
- ownership of water services staying with councils
- severe weather repairs and building more resilient infrastructure
- increased cost of compliance
- managing Whangārei’s growth.
We are presenting a constrained budget that focuses on looking after what we've got and providing for growth. It's now time for you to have your say on what we are proposing.
What is a Long Term Plan?
The Long Term Plan is a document that covers the work Council and the community have agreed we want to achieve together over the next ten years. It puts the work on a timeline and outlines where the money will come from to do this work.
We produce a new draft of the Long Term Plan every three years to keep it up to date and to reflect the community’s changing wants and needs.
We then consult with the community, asking for their preferred options on specific topics and for feedback on these key topics or other points raised in the consultation documentation.
Five key points about the Long Term Plan
- We have a big gap between our income and expenses. The main causes are inflation, rising construction, insurance and interest costs, and the need to fund infrastructure for growth.
- We need to address the District's funding and infrastructure challenges now, even though times are tough for everyone.
- A general rates increase of 17.2% is needed this year to keep up with the cost of delivering our services. The impact of this increase will vary depending on what other services the property is rated for.
- We're asking for your feedback on some options to do things differently, although we aren't proposing significant cuts to what we deliver.
- Investing in our District is important. We need to make sure we are future-ready with better roads and resilient infrastructure.
The plan also identifies a few opportunities to do things differently and seeks your input on three topics:
Key topics for your feedback
As part of this consultation we are seeking your feedback on three topics:
Topic 1: Becoming a Northland Inc shareholder
One of Council’s strategic priorities is to enable the sustainable economic development of the District. We believe that economic growth supports stronger communities and better quality of life for all Northlanders.
We have the opportunity to become a shareholder of our regional economic development agency, Northland Inc, alongside the existing shareholders, Northland Regional Council, Far North District Council and Kaipara District Council.
At the moment we contribute $105,000 per annum of grant funding to Northland Inc. We’re asking if you would like us to become a shareholder of Northland Inc and contribute additional funding ($370,000 in Year 1 and $482,000 in Year 2) to the wider Investment and Growth Reserve.
For more on this topic go to page 20 of the consultation document.
Topic 2: Freedom camping monitoring and compliance
Our Camping in Public Places Bylaw regulates camping in Council controlled public places in our District, with an education / ambassador monitoring and enforcement programme being run each season.
This service has been funded by the Government, through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. They provided $200,000 for this programme this financial year.
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has advised that government funding may not be available next financial year. We will continue to seek funding for the programme, but we want your guidance if none can be sourced.
We’d like to hear if we should we fund it through rates (a 0.16% increase) or withdraw the service.
For more on this topic go to page 22 of the consultation document.
Topic 3: Commercial property development options
We believe there is an opportunity to take a more active role in developing Council-owned commercial property, and potentially, pursuing strategic opportunities and funding to bring about better outcomes for Whangārei.
We are seeking your feedback on whether we should take a more proactive approach. If so, how should we do this?
One option is either as an in-house function, another is a more ’arms-length’ approach through a separate entity (i.e. a council-controlled organisation or council-controlled trading organisation).
For more on this topic go to page 24 of the consultation document.
You can read what is proposed in our Long Term Plan consultation document and look at the detail that supports it.
Long Term Plan 2024-34 consultation document(PDF, 5MB)
Long Term Plan 2024-34 supporting documents(PDF, 34MB)
You can view what your proposed rates could be for 2024 - 2025. Your rates may be different when they are adopted in July 2024.
Proposed rates 2024 - 2025 database search
Consultations alongside the Long Term Plan
Alongside the Long Term Plan, we are also consulting on our:
- Draft Revenue and Financing policy
- Draft Rates Remission and Postponement Policy and Discount for Early Payment of Rates in Current Financial Year Policy
- Draft Development contributions policy and schedule
- Draft Significance and engagement policy
- Draft Fees and charges 2024-25.
To find out more about the Consultations alongside the Long Term Plan 2024-34, follow the link below.
Consultations alongside the Long Term Plan 2024-34
Submissions
Submissions closed at 5:00pm on Thursday 25 April 2024.