Whanganui mayor's advice after achieving lowest rates rise in New Zealand
Photo:
RNZ / Robin Martin
Stop making excuses and come up with a solid plan - that's the advice from Whanganui mayor after the city achieved the
lowest rates rise in the country
.
Whanganui's average rates increase is 2.2 percent for the year ahead.
Mayor Andrew Tripe said the low figure was the envy of the country - which has had an increase of about 8.7 percent on average.
He told
Morning Report
the council "went hard and went early".
"Early on in my morality I realised that things were going to get tough... alongside my chief executive, I sent him away to put together a five point plan, he came back with a six point plan to find cost savings and efficiency, so we went hard and went early on this - it's no fluke."
Tripe said cutting food scrape collections saved Whanganui 1.1 percent on rates.
"The majority of our community - over 60 percent - said they didn't want the food scrapes, they are already doing it anyway. As soon as the government said no I pounced on that and we made a decision to cut the foodscrape collection.
"I think that was very very well received by our community actually, contrary to what one person might being saying."
He said the council had not only kept up all core services, but had increased infrastructure spending by 11 percent compared with last year.
"All we have done is been more efficient with what we've got - doing more with less."
Tripe reiterated that cost saving cuts - apart from a minor change to a libraries opening hours - were not made to council facilities.
He said his advice to other councils was to stop making excuses and come up with a solid plan.
"I've got a saying - no result plus a good excuse equals no result. For me don't make excuses, get on with it and put a very very solid plan together.
"We put the six point plan together and that has attributed to our rates rise of 2.2 percent this year," he said.
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