Waitaki to get Fit For The Future with the Draft Long Term Plan

The Mayor and Councillors approved the Draft Long Term Plan consultation document this week, setting out the next nine-years of budget, projects and plans for the Waitaki District Council.

The consultation document, titled “Fit For The Future” proposes an average rate rise for the Waitaki District of 10.3% in the 2025/26 year.

This reflects the increased investment on infrastructure upgrades that Council is required to make in coming years to meet legal regulatory requirements set by Parliament and growth in the District. It also accounts for the inflationary pressures on plant and materials for maintaining its existing roading and water networks, and the delivery of core Council services.

Over the nine year plan, rate rises will decrease to 5% or below by 2030. However, this also assumes that water services and charges for water, will be the responsibility of a new council owned water company from 2027 onwards as the Council’s preferred option to meet the Government’s Local Waters Done Well legislation.

At present the underlying numbers of the Draft Long Term Plan indicate that Waitaki District Council will run an unbalanced budget for the nine-years of the plan, however there are still some big decisions to make, following consultation with the district’s communities. Last night, the Mayor and Councillors committed to ensuring that by the time it was adopted in June, the budget will be balanced.

Mayor for Waitaki District, Gary Kircher, says, “Council is going to use this consultation process to reduce spending further, and we’re all committed to ensuring this budget is balanced by June. There’s more we will do to reduce spending but we need to hear from the community about what they value, prioritise and want from us over the next nine years.”

The Mayor and Councillors also emphasised that stating a “Preferred Option” on consultation topics is a requirement of the Local Government Act 2002, and is the basis for the calculation of the proposed ratings in the Draft Long Term Plan. The community is encouraged to feed back on their own preferred options, and they will be considered before any decisions are made by Council.

Consultation topics include the future of water services, introducing metering in the Waitaki District, the future of the coastal Beach Road, ways of boosting economic growth in the District, potential property sales by Council as well as a review of both Community Halls and Council Housing. There are also proposals to introduce an ‘AirBnB’ levy on short-term holiday accommodation in the District. Council is also proposing changes to Fees and Charges for the 2025/2026 year. Within the consultation the Council sets out its list of projects and spending on them over the next nine years, which have been scaled back significantly compared to previous years, to help keep rate rises down.

The consultation opens on Tuesday 4 February, and continues until Monday 3 March. Council will be holding six in-person Q&A sessions around the District this month, as well as pop-up Fit Stops. It has also begun a weekly Facebook Q&A session on different consultation topics each Tuesday from 7pm.

There will be paper copies of the consultation document available at Waitaki District Libraries, as well as a lot more information on each topic at the Council’s consultation website letstalk.waitaki.govt.nz.