Have your say on our plan for next year

Tell us your views on council's plans for 2010-2011.  To ensure residents and ratepayers have a chance to give feedback, a brochure about what is in the plan will be in resident’s letterboxes this week (1-5 March). Ratepayers who live outside of the district will be mailed a copy or can access it from our website. 

A series of 22 community update meetings begin on Tuesday 2 March 2010 in Elgin at Te Wananga o Aotearoa at 5.30pm. This will be followed by a meeting at Waikirikiri School for the Kaiti community on Wednesday 3 March at 6.30pm. From there Waipiro Bay and Tokomaru Bay communities will be updated followed by the rural communities of Tiniroto, Patutahi, Manutuke, Whatatutu and Te Karaka.

Council staff will be attending the Flea Market and Farmers Market on Saturday 13 March. Copies of the plan will be available and staff will be able to outline what is in the plan, and take service requests.

Attending all meetings will be Mayor Meng Foon or Deputy Mayor Nona Aston. They will be accompanied by your local councillors and senior staff members, all prepared to answer any questions community members may have about council’s draft plan and how it will affect rating levels.

At all community update meetings those attending will get a progress report about any issues that were raised at the meeting last year and also any projects council is planning that will affect their community.

“The plan reflects a business-as-usual year for council. It is year 2 of our Ten Year Plan and there are few major projects due to be implemented.  Most have been pushed out to later in the 10-year cycle as council concentrates on completing it’s largest ever project, the city’s new wastewater treatment plant. The draft plan is budgeted to cost $71M. Council will collect over half of the cost - $45.3M - from rates. This will require an increase in total rates income of $2.6M, a 6.1% proposed increase from last year. This is less than the 6.4% increase for 2011 predicted in council’s Ten Year Plan. Some tight budgeting and a competitive contracting market, as well as the efforts of staff have helped to minimise rate increases for next year,” says chief executive Lindsay McKenzie.

“Council genuinely wants to know what communities think of council’s plan. The consultation process gives people a chance to highlight anything missing. They can also comment on the affordability of what we are proposing, and let us know what priority they place on our services. Importantly it is also an opportunity to report back on the work communities asked for when we last met.  Following the public consultation period we will make a final decision on the level of rates in late June,” Mr McKenzie added.

How to have your say?

Before 4pm on Friday 26 March you can…

• Attend one of the community update meetings in March

• Fill in a submission form online

• Complete the submission form that is on the back of the brochure, which will be in your letterbox next week.

• Phone customer service on 06 867 2049 (or 0800 653 800) for East Coast resident and they will complete a submission for you.

• Place a comment on any news story or in the “have your say” section of our website

• Speak to council during the hearings process. You need to indicate this on the submission form.

Why make a submission?

It is important that those who pay for and benefit from council services, have some input into what they get for their money.

• All submissions are forwarded to the appropriate council manager who summarises them by topic into a staff report.  All submissions and staffs reports will be available on our website from 23 April 2010.

• All staff reports go to councillors prior to meeting for the hearings process.

• The hearings process is held on 5 and 6 May 2010. This is when people can speak to council about what they have put in their submission.

• Council considers and debates all feedback they have received. Changes are made to the draft plan based on the outcome of these debates.

• The Annual Plan is adopted on 24 June 2010.

• Anyone who makes a submission on the Annual Plan will be informed in writing about any decision made that related to their submission.