The Long Term Plan was supposed to be adopted on 31 July  but was delayed by a week. This happened because Audit NZ found some changes that needed to be made. Consequently, the new Fees and Charges and rates calculations will start on August 8th, 2024.

During the consultation period, Tararua residents were asked to consider a range of options on seven key issues. Council received 503 submissions from the community and 29 people spoke at the Council Hearings. According to Tararua District Mayor Tracey Collis: “The input, feedback, and real-life commentary from the Long Term Plan submissions and hearings have been invaluable in guiding our Councillors’ decisions. They were influenced by the persuasive and well-articulated arguments, which offered a balanced view on the issues.”

One of the main consultation items was Rates Smoothing, where Council decided to spread out the necessary rates increase of 16.29% over three years, to soften the impact of the sharp increase on ratepayers. As a result, the average rates increases for the 2024/25 have been set at 11.09% for Year 1, 11.79% for year 2, and 11.84% for year 3. This year, ratepayers across New Zealand face an average rates rise of 15%.

One of the other main consultation items was the Pahiatua swimming pool, where Council decided to fund $2.5 million (loan funded) towards a new indoor aquatic facility that costs approximately $6.3 million. Bush Aquatic Trust has already fundraised $2.5 million, requiring further fundraising of around $1.3 million. The construction of the pool is expected to be completed before summer of 2025. Out of 410 submitters on this topic, 378 supported this option.

Following the inputs from the hearings and submissions, other decisions on consultation items included:

• The National Land Transport Programme where Council decided to maximise the increased NZTA subsidy and increase our roading program to create a more resilient roading network (noting that there will be significantly decreased funding received in the footpath space);
• To reduce the funding for the Economic and Community Development activity, including a reduction in community grant funding, and creating a contestable fund of $100,000 per year.
• Creating a specialised Roading and Differential sector rate to cover road repair expenses caused by heavy vehicles, such as those from the forestry industry, dairy and industrial activities.
• Keeping the remission on annual uniform charges for rural landowners whose land isn’t all in one land parcel or right next to each other (Non-contiguous rating units).
• Choosing one district wide Town Centre Refurbishment rate.

Audit New Zealand have expressed that Tararua District Council’s Long-term Plan “provides a reasonable basis for long-term, integrated decision-making and co-ordination of the Council’s resources; accountability of the Council to the community”; and that the “information and assumptions underlying the forecast information in the plan are reasonable”. In addition, Audit New Zealand drew attention to the matter of uncertainty for Council to receive funding for Cyclone Gabrielle recovery work from central government.

Mayor Tracey thanked the 503 residents who submitted on the Long Term Plan, and also passed on thanks to the Councillors and staff for their work in developing the Long Term Plan together. “There has been an incredible effort in putting this together, overcoming considerable challenges and tight timeframes to produce a quality plan for our next 10 years. This includes ways to find savings which has helped to reduce the average rises considerably.”

The Long-term Plan came into effect on Thursday, 8 August 2024.

The final Long Term Plan document is currently undergoing minor accuracy, grammatical, and formatting amendments, which will need to be signed off by the auditors. In the meantime, please refer to the latest version available here.