STDC Long Term Plan Focuses on District Infrastructure
Increased spending on roads and wastewater infrastructure, a commitment to getting on with town centre upgrades in the District’s smaller communities and an increase to the rates subsidy were some of the big-ticket items in the South Taranaki District Council’s 10-year Long Term Plan, which was adopted at today’s (Monday 8 July) extraordinary Council meeting.
The Plan’s adoption follows a month of public consultation which saw the Council receive 235 submissions and a clean audit opinion.
At the meeting, Deloitte Partner Assurance and Advisory Bennie Greyling thanked South Taranaki District Council elected members and staff involved in the process of completing the Long Term Plan 2024 – 2034.
“Congratulations,” says Mr Greyling. “From our perspective it’s a clean audit opinion which is good.”
South Taranaki Mayor Phil Nixon says the District is on an upward trajectory and the Council’s Long Term Plan is about maintaining that momentum while also doing what’s needed to look after the District’s assets.
“In the feedback received, our residents have told us that they want to see better roads, our towns amenities and gardens looking good and an improved dog control service. In response, over the next three years, we’re increasing our roading expenditure, have committed to continuing town centre upgrades in Hāwera, Manaia, Eltham, Ōpunakē, Pātea and Waverley, and have budgeted to increase resources in the animal control team,” he says.
Of the 235 submissions received, 71% supported more money spent on roading, 82% supported an increased rates subsidy, 54% supported earthquake strengthening Eltham Town Hall to 67% of the New Building Standard and 79% supported increasing user fees and charges.
“The big challenge for us is how we afford to do this at a time when local government is facing unprecedented cost increases”.
Like households and businesses across the country, Council is facing increased costs for the things we buy. Local government inflation has risen by around 20% over the last two years and continues to rise. Fuel, bitumen, electricity, construction, and insurance costs have all increased considerably - in some cases contractors’ costs have increased up to 60%. Higher interest rates have increased the cost of borrowing and paying back debt and compliance costs driven by government requirements have meant we need to spend a lot more on our infrastructure.
This means we need to pay more just to keep doing what we are already doing, without adding anything else,” says Mayor Nixon.
Mayor Nixon says the Council worked tirelessly to find savings across all activities to keep the rates increase as low as possible, including reducing budgets for things like the Hāwera Town revitalisation project, tourism, and events, delaying some non-urgent capital projects works, increasing borrowing and the amount Council’s Long Term Investment Fund subsidises rates each year by an additional $350k.
Despite this, the average total rate increase for the 2024/25 Year is 11.1% with an average rate increase over the next ten years of 5.41%.
“We know the rate increase will be really hard for a lot of ratepayers. It’s higher than what we want and higher than we’ve had over the previous ten years, but it reflects what it costs to simply maintain existing services while ensuring our critical infrastructure meets our community’s needs and government requirements,” says Mayor Nixon.
“If we don’t maintain our assets well, they will cost us more in the long term if we have to replace them sooner than expected or all at once. You don’t have to look hard to see places around the country where years of underinvestment by councils has led to unacceptable infrastructure failures and we don’t want South Taranaki to be in that situation,” he says.
The skyrocketing costs are affecting councils right across the country.
“Councils are acutely aware they need to balance the need for investment with affordable increases, but the pressure has reached a tipping point and I think we need to have a national conversation about local government funding – including the value of the services councils provide to communities,” says Mayor Nixon.
ENDS
Quick Facts
- 65% of our total operating expenditure and 91% of our capital expenditure is spent on our core infrastructure.
- The Council’s largest annual operating expense is on roading. Over the next ten years Council has budgeted to spend $446 million (including both operational and capital spending) on this activity.
- Rates are projected to account for 58% of the Council’s total revenue over the next ten years. Revenue coming from rates has declined by more than 4% since 2018/19 as the Council receives a larger proportion of grants and subsidies.
LGNZ commissioned Infometrics to analyse increases in local government costs that are driving rates rises. They found costs for councils were up 20% across the board.
- Civil construction costs were up an average 27% over the last three years
- Bridges are 38% more expensive to build than 3 years ago
- Roads and water supply systems are 27% more expensive to build than 3 years ago
- Sewage systems are 30% more expensive to build than 3 years ago
Key projects/initiatives over first 3 years of the Long-Term Plan
Economic
- Continue to develop the South Taranaki Business Park.
- Complete installation of water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure for residential growth in Hāwera.
- Subsidise rates on average by $4.22 million per annum using earnings from the Long-Term Investment Fund
- Spend an average of $46.6 million per annum on the road network, including an average of $1.1 million on footpaths each year.
- Complete water treatment enhancement and water pressure improvements in Pātea.
- Build new reservoirs for Ōpunakē, Waverley and Eltham.
- Upgrade the Ōpunakē Water Treatment Plant.
- Replace the Waverley water bore.
Cultural Well-being
- Complete Te Ramanui o Ruapūtahanga, South Taranaki’s new Library, Culture and Arts Centre.
- Complete Earthquake strengthening and upgrade of Eltham Town Hall
- Replace or strengthen and refurbish the Manaia War Memorial Hall and Manaia Sports Complex (Project Tūkau).
- Implement the Iwi-Council Partnership Strategy - He Pou Tikanga Ngā iwi o te Tai Whakarunga.
Social Well-being
- Undertake town centre upgrades in Pātea, Waverley, Manaia, Ōpunakē and Eltham and complete the Hāwera Town centre upgrade.
- Upgrade Waverley Swimming Pool plant.
- Build new toilets in Ōhawe, Ōpunakē Lake, Pātea and Rāhotu.
- Implement digital transformation programme to replace Council’s ageing digital infrastructure.
- Build a new pump track at Aotea Park in Waverley.
- Upgrade the Waverley Grandstand.
Environmental Well-being
- Reforestation programme - replant 150 hectares by 2027.
- Protect the Pātea saltmarsh.
- Establish a regional organic materials processing facility (in partnership with all Taranaki district councils and private enterprise).
- Minimise waste including introducing weekly kerbside food scraps collection, change to fortnightly rubbish kerbside collection, improvements to transfer stations and establishment of a resource recovery centre in Hāwera.
- Develop a roadmap for future climate change emissions reduction and adaptation.
- Establish a $10 million emergency disaster recovery fund.
- Upgrade our wastewater network and build new tertiary wastewater treatment plants for Waverley, Hāwera, Pātea, Kaponga and Manaia wastewater treatment plants.
- Build a new anaerobic lagoon for the Hāwera wastewater treatment plant.