Opening Hours - Friday 13 December 2024
The WDC Customer Service Centre and Admin Building will be closed on Friday 13 December 2024 until 10am. We will still be available by phone on 0800 932 4357. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
One-lane road closure - Tuesday 17 December 2024

A one-lane road closure will be in place on Tuesday 17 December near the T section at BP Petrol Station in Te Kūiti. The section of road affected is one lane between Te Kūiti Pā and the railway crossing. Stop/Go traffic management will be in place. The closure is to enable Council’s contractor to investigate and upgrade a sewer manhole.

Please expect delays

Waitomo District Council adopts Long Term Plan 2015-2025

25 Jun 2015, 8:00 AM

Council adopted its Long Term Plan 2015-25 (LTP) on Tuesday 23 June. This followed a significant audit process that took a detailed look into all the aspects of Council policies, financial strategy, asset management plans and Consultation Document (CD).

Public consultation took place from 1 April to Friday, 1 May 2015. During this period Elected Members attended existing community meetings in Te Kuiti, Piopio, Mokau and Benneydale to discuss the proposals in the CD.

SUBMISSIONS RECEIVED

A total of 33 submissions covering 78 topics were received. A variety of topics were covered in submissions, some related to the proposals for the LTP and others not.

Overall there was support for Council's focus on Economic Development and some respondents also provided some feedback in relation to opportunities that they felt the Council should consider.

Twelve submissions were presented in person at the Council hearings on 11 May.

The Revenue and Financing Policy (RFP) and the Policy on Remission of Rates were publicly consulted on, in a manner which gave effect to section 82 and 82A of the LGA.

No submissions were received in relation to this separate process although some people raised matters in their submission which related to the RFP. 

OUTCOME OF PUBLIC FEEDBACK

As a result of the feedback received from the community during the consultation process, Council resolved to confirm its' preferred options raised in the Consultation Document.

  • Continuing with a focus on economic development in a staged but steady manner and in house delivery of economic development initiatives.
  • Changes to the funding splits between Uniform Annual Charge (UAGC) and General Rate and limiting increases in value of the UAGC to Local Goverment Cost Index (LGCI) for that year.
  • Continued focus on the debt reduction objective but not to levy an additional new rate for this purpose.

Council also considered and agreed that there remains a high level of uncertainty around the issues concerning Waitomo Village, Water and Wastewater infrastructure and the timing of any change. Therefore it is not possible for Council to include any specific financial provision for these assets in the financial forecasting for the next 10 years.

However, Council is committed to working through the issues with the stakeholders to reach a more definitive position. Although there is not a specific financial resource dedicated to this work stream in the LTP, Council will utilise its' internal resources for investigatory works.

Council recognises the value in liaising with Maori and will continue to proactively liaise at Regional Management Committee level.

Council will also include Iwi Liaison in its forward work programme consideration of how to continue Iwi liaison in the future, with a view to enhancing it.

TOTAL RATES 2015/16 AND BEYOND

The total rates requirement for the LTP is shown in the following table.

($000's)

EAP 2014 

LTP 2015  LTP 2016  LTP 2017  LTP 2018  LTP 2019 LTP 2020  LTP 2021  LTP 2022  LTP 2023  LTP 2024 
Total Rates (23 June)  18,038  18,528  19,268  20,015  20,795  21,623  22,396  23,238  23,890  24,356  24,665 
Rates increase    2.72% 3.99%  3.88%  3.90%  3.98%  3.57% 3.76%  2.81% 1.95%  1.27% 

 

WDC’s Long Term Plan was audited by Office of the Auditor General (OAG) and received an audit opinion.