On The Up: Young golfer Sascha Apanui wins Ōmokoroa Cup against club president
The youngest player in the Ōmokoroa Cup graciously took out the tournament, beating 77-year-old club president John Marsh - affectionately known as Swampy.
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NZ Herald
a day ago
- NZ Herald
On The Up: Young golfer Sascha Apanui wins Ōmokoroa Cup against club president
Ten-year-old Bay of Plenty golfer Sascha Apanui has made a statement at his local club after beating the president. The youngest player in the Ōmokoroa Cup graciously took out the tournament, beating 77-year-old club president John Marsh - affectionately known as Swampy.
RNZ News
14-07-2025
- RNZ News
How Whanganui achieved lowest rates in the country
Whanganui mayor Andrew Tripe says the council is looking beyond the short-term and planning for the future. Photo: LDR / Moana Ellis Whanganui's average rates increase of 2.2 percent for the year ahead is the lowest in the country. Mayor Andrew Tripe says the low figure is the envy of the country and the payoff in a sustained drive to adjust how the council operates. "[It] didn't happen by accident - it's the result of a deliberate strategy to keep costs under control," Tripe said. "Many of the savings are structural and will flow through to future years. We expect there will be opportunities to reduce the 2026/27 rates increase as well." In a survey by Local Democracy Reporting on average rates for 2025/26 throughout the country, Waitomo District Council had the next lowest rates at 2.9 percent, and Bay of Plenty Regional Council was third lowest in the country at 3.0 percent. Five councils - Upper Hutt City, Waipa District, Hamilton City, Hastings District and Clutha District - were looking at jumps of 15-17 percent. The average rates hike is about 8.7 percent, compared with last year's 14 percent. In his first tilt at local government in 2022, Tripe's successful campaign for the mayoralty included driving efficiencies to reduce the rates burden. A six-point plan was developed early in the electoral term to reduce costs and ease reliance on rates. As well as improving efficiency, the plan looked at reducing services, finding alternative funding for projects, identifying non-rates sources of revenue, and growing the population so there were more households to pitch in on rates. "The plan has taken a while to get some traction, however the benefits of that approach are now starting to show," Tripe said. The savings drive led to works and services being deferred, scaled back or cut but Tripe said investment in infrastructure had been prioritised. Variations to the long-term plan included Tripe's push to ditch a planned food scrap collection, reducing rates by $1 million or about 1.5 percent, he said. Council restructuring saved $1.2m a year. Whanganui mayor Andrew Tripe. Photo: Aka Creative Deferrals included pushing out by a year a $1m grant for Whanganui Surf Lifesaving Service's rescue centre. The project was not at the stage where funding was needed, Tripe said. An $8m of planned spending on an opera house upgrade was delayed to await a business case. The Waitahinga Quarry development project was deferred while the council focused on other projects, and all council vehicle replacements have been deferred for the year. A planned full review of the district plan has also been deferred, saving $700,000. Tripe said the council was no longer required to conduct a full review of the plan following central government's decision to make changes to the Resource Management Act. Non-rates income was expected to increase by almost 20 percent in the year ahead. "We are expecting higher fee revenue in some activities such as parking and aquatics. "We have moderated our property renewals budget down for affordability and to ensure we can deliver the planned programme. "Three waters capital programmes have been moderated to ensure that they are deliverable in the 2025/26 financial year." The council had also made minor reductions to venues improvement budgets and optimised corporate budgets for items like IT hardware replacements. It was committed to "investing solidly" in core infrastructure, with more than 80 percent of capital spending earmarked over the next 10 years for the likes of footpaths, roading, and stormwater. There was also an 11 percent increase in infrastructure spending from 2024/25. The council also tightened spending on insurance cover by taking a risk-based approach on property and removing some assets from its insurance schedule. The council has forecast an unbalanced budget of $5.5 million for 2025/26 due to increased depreciation costs from inflation and large new assets like the redeveloped Sarjeant Gallery and wastewater treatment plant. "While we are repaying debt on these long-life assets, we believe it's not fair for current ratepayers to also fund future replacements. Running an unbalanced budget is prudent in the short-term." Tripe said the council's balance sheet was strong, debt was under control and additional repayments were being made to loans. Asked how these decisions would affect long-term planning, Tripe said the council was looking beyond the short-term and planning for the future. "We're creating a strategy for Whanganui with five goals: to grow, build for, protect, celebrate and activate Whanganui." This included plans to establish a standalone entity to improve housing stock and allocating an extra $590,000 toward debt repayment, on top of existing repayments. Paying down debt more quickly would benefit future generations, Tripe said. "This equates to 0.7 percent of the 2.2 percent average rates increase." Asked if he was confident the council was investing adequately in the district's future, Tripe said Whanganui was faring well in a difficult national economy. "We should be excited about our future. Whanganui has a fantastic range of facilities for our community and the council is committed to maintaining these and ensuring that the infrastructure is in place for Whanganui to continue to be a great place to live, work and visit." - LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
RNZ News
24-06-2025
- RNZ News
Minister Shane Jones accuses council of being 'iwi back office'
The Minister for Regional Development Shane Jones wants politicians to ask ratepayers if regional councils are value for money. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER The Minister for Regional Development Shane Jones says problems in regional councils are "hobbling" economic progress. Last week, Jones told a forum New Zealand First did not see a compelling case for regional government to continue to exist after changes to the Resource Management Act came into effect. However, Bay of Plenty Regional Council chair Doug Leeder says scrapping regional councils is not in the interest of the wider community or the environment He was reacting after Jones told Morning Report regional councils such as Otago and Waikato were standing in the way of mining and marine farming permits. "In 2012 the Waikato Regional Council itself made a submission to the Productivity Commission and it identified that co-ordination and a host of other problems was actually hobbling its ability to contribute towards productivity. "If we don't have mining, if we don't have marine farming then a lot of the regional areas of New Zealand they're going to be blighted," Jones said. The councils represented a small part of a case for a "broader rationalisation" which he intended to put before his party in the lead up to next election. "New Zealand politicians should ask the public: Do they feel that the current system, is it generating ratepayer value? Is it actually delivering economic growth at a time where the narrative we have - as a government - is to boost economic growth, to generate the surplus so we can afford the services that we take for granted," Jones said. The influence of iwi and the creeping scope of co-governance initiatives had extended beyond initial intent. "I'm deeply concerned that the Waikato Regional council is turning into some sort of iwi back office. "I think that there's a host of other challenges though where [council] staff are hobbling economic development such as an unwillingness to support mining in Otago where they've dredged up some dead moth," Jones said. Minister for Resource Management Act Reform Chris Bishop said the changes the government was making will look at the functions and responsibilities of regional councils. Bishop said the reform process has implications for regional councils, as they do a range of things such as public transport, natural hazard management, and environmental monitoring and planning. He said Jones was giving his party view but he could understand his frustration with regional councils. Doug Leeder Photo: NZME Bay of Plenty Regional Council chair Doug Leeder says passing off regional council's responsibilities onto another agency will not alter the challenges associated with their functions. Councils gained a raft of important responsibilities from regional catchment boards in the late eighties. "They include really important functions such as the stewardship of land, water and air, therefore the environmental issues. There's rivers, drainage, flood protection schemes, you've got public transport delivery, emergency management functions, regional planning functions, bio-security, bio-diversity as a starter. "So when we understand those and we understand how they are best delivered then that's the start of the conversation rather than the unilateral just getting rid of councils," Leeder said. Councils were open to discussions on streamlining those functions if the tasks were underpinned by good, solid governance. "Let's be upfront, some of the consenting processes across the country in terms of the RMA [Resoruce Management Act} and getting infrastructure and delivery of services are really complex, they are really expensive and they need review. The regional sector of Local Government New Zealand has been advocating for this for a significant period of time," Leeder said. Scrapping regional councils and their associated functions was not in the interest of the wider community or the environment, he told Morning Report . Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
