DCC Budget 2012-13

All of the scrimping, saving and budget-stretching done by the Dunedin City Council in the past week paid off yesterday, as it managed to keep the rates increase for the next financial year at 5%.

The debate over access to Dunedin's John Wilson Ocean Dr may be rekindled after city councillors resolved to look again at a barrier arm, after deciding last year it would be too expensive.

The Otago Settlers Museum was the main casualty of a "wash-up" at the end of the Dunedin City Council's budget-setting process yesterday, when an earlier decision to give it $2.16 million for fit-out costs was reduced to $1.25 million.

Swim clubs and coaches will have to pay lane fees at Moana Pool from next year, although the proposed charges were scaled back after multiple pleas that they were unaffordable.

The council will investigate the possibility of increasing some business' rates to cover costs incurred by tourists to the council.

Frugality was the order of the day, as Dunedin City Councillors yesterday worked through a series of applications for civic grants for the next financial year.

Pleas from the arts community for an arts and culture strategy for Dunedin have resulted in city councillors setting aside $20,000 for the development of one over the next two years.

The Dunedin City Council has sold another piece of its Carisbrook property collection.

The Dunedin Business Internship Programme will continue after councillors allocated $60,000 from the city's budget towards it.

Cycleways, the stadium and the Otago Rugby Football Union bail-out have helped fuel a near-record level of public submissions on the Dunedin City Council's draft budgets.