'Working smarter' puts rates up 0.41%

It's official - Waitaki ratepayers will face a 0.41% rates increase next year.

The council adopted its 2016-17 annual plan this week.

Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said the council was "working smarter'' and because of finding efficiencies and lower inflation rates was able to add to the plan while setting the average rates increase lower than planned.

"We're actually doing everything we planned to do, plus extra stuff,'' he said.

"One of my goals has been making sure we are spending as best we can and I think this is a good step along that way.

"It's been very much a team effort to get where we are.''

The annual plan, which diverges slightly from the council's second year in its 2015-25 long-term plan, adopted last year, includes an average rates increase of 0.41%.

The starting point to set the rates, based on the long-term plan, was a 2.1% increase.

The changes to the council's plan were advertised in a consultation document, and a period of public consultation from March 18 to April 22 resulted in 81 submissions from groups and individuals.

The final decision-making on items included in the plan were made at an extraordinary council meeting on June 8.

Mr Kircher, in his mayoral message at the start of the document, acknowledged the eight months of work councillors and council staff put into preparing the plan.

He also noted some of the changes in the plan from what was anticipated in the long-term plan, including: $56,000 for education and policing for the council's proposed responsible freedom camping bylaw; a contingency fund of up to $150,000 over and above to address sealing issues on rural roads, a new toilet in a new location in Duntroon, a programme with Plunket to provide free swimming lessons for families in need, improved walkways in Palmerston, installation of an irrigation bore at Weston Domain, erosion control for the Kakanui River, river control work for the Otematata River; and an extra $100,000 for Alps 2 Ocean to move the trail off road from Duntroon to Oamaru.

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz

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