South Wairarapa Locks In Key Decisions, 4.7% Rates Rise Likely
South Wairarapa District Council has locked in its Long-Term Plan options after deliberating on submissions, resulting in a preliminary total rates increase of 4.7% for the coming financial year.
The council would adopt the final Long-Term Plan and budget on June 25.
Deputy mayor Melissa Sadler-Futter said elected members and council staff had worked hard to limit the overall rates increase.
She thanked the community for their input into submissions and hearings.
During the council's Long-Term Plan consultation between March 7 and April 6, 218 full submissions and 600 signed letters with the same template were received, addressing six questions across three decision areas.
At a Strategy Working Committee meeting on Wednesday, councillors agreed to maintain the proportion of uniform charge rates at 21%, instead of increasing to 28% as proposed in the consultation.
Because the uniform charge is based on capital value, keeping it at 21% meant rates would be cheaper for a larger number of South Wairarapa properties but would continue to disproportionately affect properties with a higher capital value.
The community feedback on this decision was described by council staff as 'even' with 92 'full submissions' in favour of 21% and 92 in favour of 28%, however the 600 signed letters were in favour of 28% and suggested the council should lift it to 30%.
Councillors also agreed to maintain the current funding model for services and facilities based in the three main towns instead of introducing a district services rate as proposed in the consultation.
A new and improved definition of Separately Used or Inhabitable Parts (SUIP) was agreed upon, which made it clear which dwellings would be excluded from extra charges.
The refuse and recycling charge was also changed back to per rating unit instead of per SUIP.
The next big decision was locking in the council's water operations budget at $6.05 million for the 2025-26 year.
It was the cheapest option on the table and was supported by a majority of councillors.
However councillor Rebecca Gray said it was not a responsible position for the council to take and wished the council would set the budget at $6.55m budget.
Councillors Alistair Plimmer and Martin Bosley agreed with Gray.
Regarding roading investment, the council locked in funding for the full Low Cost Low Risk roading improvements programme with an increased capital budget.
Sadler-Futter said councillors had been 'very mindful of the impact of our decisions on ratepayers' pockets'.
'In the current economic climate, a rates increase of any size is something to carefully consider. We are all here for right reasons and our community is at the heart of those decisions we make.'
The council decided not to fund a number of Memorandum of Understandings that were requested during the consultation, with many around the table concerned about making longer term commitments ahead of a new triennium.
Instead, it was agreed to increase the annual community and youth grant budget from $120,000 to $200,000 for the 2025-26 year.
'We have a small amount of funding available to share across our district and in this environment, everyone should get a chance to apply for a contestable fund instead of committing to MOUs,' Sadler-Futter said.
'We are trying to balance keeping rate increases low and supporting the incredible work that our community delivers.'
Requests from each of the community boards were giventhe green light, including the Martinborough Community Board's request to fence the small children's area at the Waihinga playground with funding from the Waihinga Reserve up to the balance of the reserve.
This would not have an impact on rates.
The council had also agreed to the Featherston Community Board's request to include the Featherston greenspace in the budget, and the Greytown Community Board's request to extend the Arbor Reserve in Greytown and delegate beautification to the Greytown Community Board.
Councillor Aidan Ellims said these outcomes were a great example of community boards identifying projects that were meaningful to their communities that also had a low impact on the overall budget.
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
4 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
New bus service mooted from Rolleston-Chch
The proposed Bentley Coachlines service would see buses leaving Rolleston before 9am and returning after 3pm, targeting people who work in the city and students. A survey by Bentley is currently open until Sunday to gauge interest and determine if the service would be commercially viable. The existing bus service, operated by Environment Canterbury, is regularly at capacity, and often has to leave people at bus stops. Between January and April this year, ECan's service had an average patronage of 6309 people a month, peaking at 7730 passengers in March. Bentley Coachlines owner Liam Bentley said the response to the survey has already been promising. Within 24 hours of starting the survey, he had about 250 respondents with 40% not currently using the ECan buses, but about 95% saying they would use the Bentley service. 'There is definitely a clear theme of Rolleston traffic getting bad and current existing services, while they are working well, they just can't cope with the demand,' he said. For its new service, Bentley has proposed two possible routes: One starting on Westmoor Blvd in the eastern part of Rolleston and the second starting at Foster Park and travelling along Brookside Dr. Because it is a fully user-pay system, Bentley said their bus would cost about $3.50 per trip, about 50c more expensive than ECan's service when the price rises from $2 to $3. 'It's a wee bit more, the idea with ours is that you don't have to drive your car to a park and ride, the bus will service the subdivisions.' The ECan service runs four times from 6.35-7.30am leaving from Faringdon Blvd and stopping at Kidman St. When it gets to the city, it stops at Christchurch Hospital, the bus interchange, and Ara Institute. Bentley said its service would stop at the same points in the city. ECan is planning to expand its service. Last week, ECan councillors voted in favour of a two-year trial of an expanded service. What the expansion looks like is not yet clear, with ECan planning a service review to find the best way improve the service. The expanded service is predicted to come online either at the end of this year or early next year. If Bentley decides to proceed with its service, the route will still need to be approved by ECan. At the same meeting, councillors chose not to progress a Darfield to Rolleston bus trial due to a lack of support in public submissions to its 2025/26 Annual Plan. ECan received 248 submission from the areas of Darfield, West Melton and Kirwee which would have been paying the targeted rate, of those 79% of respondents did not support the trial. The biggest problem with the service was that most of its funding was coming from a targeted rate between $140 and $179. ECan agreed to cancel the trial, seven votes to six with one abstention. • To respond to the Bentley Coachlines survey, head to
Scoop
5 days ago
- Scoop
South Wairarapa Plans To Spend Almost $30m On Water Infrastructure
South Wairarapa District Council is set to spend almost $30 million on capital water infrastructure projects in the next two years, with all to be delivered in-house until a new water services entity is established. Significant projects on the horizon for the council included upgrades to wastewater treatment plants in Greytown, Martinborough, and Featherston, pipe renewals, and capacity upgrades to enable growth. The council's Management Services Agreement with Wellington Water Limited was set to expire on June 30 but the council has voted to keep operational expenditure with the water management entity for another year and do its capital expenditure programme in-house. This vote was done in public exclusion and the report has recently been released. The report said the council would need to build a team to deliver South Wairarapa's full capital expenditure programme for at least the next two years, however, the proposed Wairarapa-Tararua entity could start as early as July 1, 2026. Over the first two years of the council's 2025-34 Long-Term Plan, its capital investment programme totalled $10.85m and $18.31m respectively, the report said. 'The expected benefits of us managing capital expenditure in-house are anticipated to be more cost control, cost efficiency, on-time delivery, local contractor delivery, and optimisation of the programme leading into the new entity in which our forward investment programme will be a factor for negotiations,' the report to council said. 'The risks are that there might be some delay while we source resourcing, and this may impact on relationships with the community and the regulator, but this should be able to be managed with proactive and comprehensive communications.' The report said the relationship between the council and Wellington Water had been 'fraught' and councillors had voted in public-exclusion in December to exit the relationship with Wellington Water on June 30, 2025. Councillors had instructed staff to explore options for interim arrangements, citing dissatisfaction with Wellington Water's performance. The report said the Local Water Done Well process had provided 'additional impetus to consider an early exit from Wellington Water by SWDC'. 'Earlier exit carries the potential for upside in terms of both improved levels of service in the short to medium term, and for being better prepared for the transition into the new entity, if well executed,' the report said. 'There are also risks to an earlier exit including being able to procure sufficient resources to replace Wellington Water and the distraction from the Local Water Done Well transition work that managing an early transition could cause.' In January, council chief executive Janice Smith and Deputy Mayor and Wellington Water Committee representative Melissa Sadler-Futter met with Wellington Water Board chair Nick Leggett and chief executive Pat Dougherty and gave them informal notice that the council intended to exit the relationship on June 30 but that this could be extended 'depending on practicality'. The report said council staff then requested information to assist with this transition but Wellington Water staff had been 'disappointingly' slow to respond, 'in part because our requests distract Wellington Water resources from other matters such as planning for the new Wellington Regional entity'. Initially, council staff were asked to look at a full-service external provider option taking both operational and capital expenditure away from Wellington Water but councillors voted at the end of April to take back capital projects only. At a Wellington Water Committee meeting on Friday, Dougherty said Wellington Water was working to transfer all capital projects back to the council by July 1 and was 'starting to get systems in place to look at how we transfer responsibilities for operations and maintenance by July 1, 2026'.
Scoop
31-05-2025
- Scoop
Tauranga Council Cuts $9.85m In Costs To Shave 2.1% Off Rates Rise
Tauranga residents are facing a 9.9% rates rise after the council found extra savings. Tauranga City Council faced public criticism for proposing a 12% rates increase, down from a projected 20%. It has found $9.85 million more in cuts to council operating costs to knock off another just over 2%. These included saving $166,000 by turning public recycling bins - which had high contamination rates - into rubbish bins. The biggest cost drop, however, came from employee reductions, with at least 98 roles cut and at $12.3m saved. The council deliberated on its 2025/26 Annual Plan from Monday to Thursday after receiving 968 submissions and hearing from 68 people in person this month. On Thursday Mayor Mahé Drysdale said the changes and savings made in the plan would flow through to future years. Drysdale promised he would keep the rates below those forecast in the long-term plan. The 9.9% overall rates rise was 'not as good' as the councillors would have liked, but it was a start, he said. The council would be looking at every dollar because they needed to be prudent with people's money, Drysdale said. 'We have to respect ratepayers' money, and we have to deliver things for as small a cost as we can.' The community had also told the council more facilities were needed, he said. 'We've been dealt a very tough situation where our infrastructure and our community assets are well below where they need to be.' He said the challenge was finding the balance between delivering projects and reducing rates. 'I'm very proud of this team [and] I think we have delivered a very good balance.' Councillor Glen Crowther said it was a challenging Annual Plan because they were dealing with past decisions that added costs to the organisation. A lot of those decisions were 'firmly locked into place', he said. Crowther said he wanted a lower rates increase. 'I appreciate that a lot of work went into getting to the 9.9%, so I'm not dismissing that, but I think we need to end up lower.' The council's operating expenses were still too high, and he wanted work done before the Annual Plan was adopted in July to reduce rates further, he said. During the four days of deliberations, the council discussed everything from portaloos to tsunami paths in Pāpāmoa. Tauranga Netball asked for $20,000 to lease five portaloos toilets at Blake Park during the winter sports season. Drysdale said this was 'expensive' and they needed to 'get a deal'. The council decided to buy the portaloos and would be able to pay for this within the current budget. The Ōtūmoetai Pool, an 'amazing community asset' slated for closure, was saved. The council also agreed to extend the Pāpāmoa shared coastal path from Parton Rd to Taylor Reserve, provided it cost no more than $1m and could be delivered within the council's current budget. There were some losers from the deliberations. Councillors declined ARGOS Gym Sports $67,000 for a new kitchen and cafe facility, and Bowls Matua would not receive $180,000 to upgrade its third green. Creative Bay of Plenty would also not receive a $77,500 increase in its funding. The rates increase would be finalised in June when the Annual Plan was adopted. How the council achieved its savings • Projects reprioritised or delivered in-house $3.2m • Reduction in consultants and more use of internal services $3.9m • Employee cost reductions $9.1m - 98 roles were disestablished with more possible • Uptake-related kerbside collection cost reduction $900,000 • Interest-related finance cost savings $2m • Increased user fees $2.3m • Reduced engagement and education costs $1.5m • Other organisation-wide cost reductions $5.1m The extra savings to get to 9.9% • Further employee cost reductions $3.2m • Interest and depreciation savings $2.2m • Process improvement savings $3.8m - LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
