Council approves Annual Plan, rates

 

Kaipara District Council has adopted the Annual Plan 2016/2017, which includes a general rates increase of 2.94 percent as projected.

The final Plan included some minor changes, including providing budget for the Mangawhai Town Plan and to manage the impacts of the Regional Policy Statement.

“Changes to the Plan from Year Two of the Long Term Plan are minimal,” Commission Chair John Robertson says.

“We’ve been able to reduce our debt level by $10.9 million, with our debt projected to be $64.7 million by June 2017. We have reinvested more into our assets to address backlogs in water supply, stormwater and wastewater. There is a solid foundation set in this Annual Plan for the new elected Council to begin from,”
Mr Robertson says.

While the Council did not carry out a formal consultation process for this Annual Plan as it did not contain any significant changes, there was an informal feedback process.

“We had a good range of feedback from around the whole district; supportive and consistent. There was some concern expressed about Mangawhai’s development and a good deal of interest in the Mangawhai Town Plan now under development. Our capital programmes were supported as was the Dargaville Library redesign,” Mr Robertson says.

In addition to the general rate, the Council approved the Uniform Annual General Charge of $708, and targeted rates for water supply, wastewater, stormwater, and land drainage