Environment Canterbury Adopts Annual Plan 2025/26 After Strong Public Feedback
Canterbury Regional Council (Environment Canterbury) has today officially adopted its Annual Plan for 2025/26, following a robust public consultation process and strategic council deliberations that reflected the voices of communities across the region.
The plan sets out the council's priorities and budget for the coming financial year, with a sharpened focus on public transport, resource consent fees, and community support.
The plan also acts as a bridge between the council's Long-Term Plan and the evolving needs of the Waitaha/Canterbury region, with a continued focus on environmental regulation and protection, community preparedness and response to hazards and public transport.
A total of 744 submissions were received during the consultation period from 28 February to 3 April, with particularly strong engagement from residents in Selwyn and Christchurch.
Smarter spending, lower rates
One of the most significant outcomes is a reduced average total rates increase of approximately 5.8% — a notable drop from the 9.9% proposed during consultation and well below the 15.5% forecast in Year 2 of the Long-Term Plan 2024-34. This reduction was achieved through deferring certain public transport projects and identifying broader organisational savings.
Key decisions from May deliberations
Public Transport: The proposed Darfield to Rolleston bus trial will not proceed. Instead, enhancements will be made to Route 85 (Rolleston to City direct) and Route 86 (Darfield to City direct), subject to fleet availability.
Community support: Increased funding for community vehicle trusts was approved, alongside the development of a strategic framework to guide future public transport requests outside the Greater Christchurch and Timaru networks.
Fees and Charges: Updates to resource consent fees were confirmed, with a new Fees and Charges Schedule coming into effect on 1 July 2025.
Community voices at the heart
Canterbury Regional Council Chair Craig Pauling said he was pleased the Council had adopted the Plan, which was informed by valuable community feedback.
'We appreciate everyone who took the time to provide us with their feedback and experiences during the drafting process for this Plan.
'Many of the final decisions that we made were informed by community feedback which is something that my Councillors and I are proud of.
'We feel that we have landed in a good place for the region and are looking forward to supporting our staff to deliver the Plan over the next twelve months.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
1News
7 hours ago
- 1News
'Irresponsible': Tauranga fee hikes increase the cost of dying
Tauranga funeral directors are "appalled" and "extremely disappointed" with council increases to cremation and burial fees, saying they will drive up costs for customers. Tauranga City Council is increasing most of its burial and cremation fees as of July 1. The fees are a new $200 fee for same-day cremations, a $1030 non-resident burial fee for anyone from outside of Tauranga to be buried in a Tauranga cemetery, a new $293 fee for families who want to fill part of a grave themselves, and increasing the public holiday surcharge to $1000. The council would also remove the 10% discount for funeral homes that paid their bills on time. Hope Family Funerals general manager Oliver Marriner said the sector was appalled the new and increased charges were being introduced without any clear data presented to justify them. ADVERTISEMENT Hope Family Funerals, Legacy Funerals and four other funeral directors made a joint submission to the council's 2025/26 Annual Plan expressing their concerns about the fee increases. When that failed to move the council, they wrote asking it to pause the increases until it had engaged with Tauranga funeral homes and had detailed information about the costs involved, Marriner said. The council acknowledged their email, but had not made any 'meaningful contact', he said. 'Implementing new charges without the data to support them is simply irresponsible.' Hope Family Funerals general manager Oliver Marriner. (Source: Supplied) Funerals were already expensive, and increased costs had to be passed on to families, he said. 'At a time when they're already struggling financially, to then be charged all these extra things – it can really add up.' ADVERTISEMENT It could also add to a family's grief if they were unable to honour a loved one's wishes because of the financial burden, Marriner said. 'We work hard to try and keep prices as a funeral home as affordable as we can. It just feels like the cemetery's working against us on that. 'Instead of being a council service, it feels like it's almost a greedy business.' The removal of the discount for funeral homes could mean they needed to increase their fees or have the council invoice families directly, he said. 'It's an additional complicating factor for families who are already under a lot of pressure.' The funeral homes carried the cost and debt of burials or cremations until families paid, and often they were waiting for the money coming from an estate, Marriner said. He wanted clarification from the council to justify the fees so they could explain this to their clients and the community, he said. ADVERTISEMENT The council didn't see the grief of families facing the 'large costs', Marriner said. 'It would be nice to have that acknowledgement from them [council] that they want to work with funeral homes and by doing so, they're really working with the community.' Hope Family Funerals funeral director Eva Wolf said the non-resident burial fee did not make sense. Someone living in Pyes Pā might be just outside the Tauranga border and would need to pay even though they lived a few hundred metres away from the Pyes Pā Memorial Park cemetery, she said. Legacy Funerals general manager Kiri Randall said they understood fees needed to go up to reflect inflation and investments in assets. Tauranga Legacy Funerals general manager Kiri Randall. (Source: Supplied) 'We are extremely disappointed that the council has chosen to move ahead with these specific, poorly considered increases without engaging with the funeral sector.' ADVERTISEMENT 'Significant loss in revenue' Coffin at a funeral. (Source: Tauranga City Council spaces and places manager Alison Law said the council decided to remove the discount for funeral directors because of a 'significant loss in revenue'. The council lost nearly $15,000 from providing the discount in March alone, she said. 'We understand that this change may create some cash flow challenges for funeral directors, and we're committed to working with them individually to find solutions that meet their needs.' The pricing adjustments reflected growing costs of maintaining cemetery facilities, infrastructure, and essential services, Law said. She said the changes were necessary to ensure the council could continue to deliver high standards of care. The non-resident burial fee ensured Pyes Pā Cemetery served Tauranga residents as required by law, Law said. Law said the council could choose to waive the fee in some cases such as if the person lived near the cemetery. ADVERTISEMENT But the council was seeing more requests from places like Ōmokoroa, which were further away, she said. 'We remain committed to supporting families and funeral directors during these times and are open to discussing individual circumstances. 'Where possible, we aim to find compassionate, case-by-case solutions to help families honour their loved ones in a meaningful and respectful way.' The council's 2025/26 Annual Plan, including the fees and charges, would be adopted at a meeting tomorrow. LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
Scoop
9 hours ago
- Scoop
Councils Consult On The Wairarapa Consolidated Bylaw
The Masterton, Carterton and South Wairarapa District Councils (the Wairarapa District Councils) have opened consultation on the Wairarapa Consolidated Bylaw Ngā Ture ā-Rohe Tōpu o Wairarapa from Wednesday 25 June 2025. The proposed Bylaw spans 11 parts and controls a broad range of activities including keeping animals, licensing requirements for tattoo and skin piercing, activities that can occur in parks, reserves, and vehicles on beaches. Among the key changes are proposals to: prohibit vehicles from accessing the foreshore of Castlepoint Beach that runs parallel to Jetty Road, and limit the speed of vehicles Castlepoint and Riversdale Beaches to 10km/h. This ensures users of the beach can enjoy it safely. exempt practitioners undertaking Tā moko on a marae and in accordance with tikanga Māori from the requirements of Part Eight - Beauty Therapy, Tattooing and Skin Piercing. Tā moko is considered to be a taonga (or cultural treasure). Article 2 of the Treaty of Waitangi protects Māori rangatiratanga over taonga. introduce requirements for businesses using footpaths and other public places for sandwich boards and outdoor dining. This would ensure the pathways are accessible for other users and do not create a safety risk (Part Two – Public Places (including Parks and Reserves). introduce requirements to minimise nuisance and risk to health and safety from the keeping of animals. This includes new requirements on the location and number of beehives able to be kept on urban properties, and standards for the slaughtering of stock or poultry to ensure it is done in a way that is not offensive to other people (Part Five – Keeping of Animals, Poultry and Bees). remove the wheeled-recreational device prohibition in the Masterton CBD and Kuripuni shopping area. This means people would be able to ride skateboards and scooters in these areas. introduce three mobile trading sites at Riversdale Beach. This would let mobile traders, like food trucks, sell goods in public in the permitted areas. Robyn Cherry-Campbell, Chair of the Wairarapa Policy Working Group said "while the majority of the Wairarapa Consolidated Bylaw is being rolled over from the current Bylaw, which has been functioning well, there are a few changes being proposed.' 'We realise there may be a little 'consultation fatigue' in the community at the moment, however it is important for us to know what the community think to inform our decision making, as the Bylaw will be in place for the next five years." The Bylaw aims to ensure public health and safety is maintained and to minimise the potential for offensive behaviour in public places. Following consultation, the Wairarapa Policy Working Group will consider community feedback and make recommendations back to Council. Consultation will open on 25 June and close at 4pm on Friday 25 July 2025. Feedback can be provided in a number of ways: Completing an online submission form Downloading a fillable submission form from your Council website and emailing it to: submissions@ Picking up a submission form from one of our libraries or customer service centres or print out our printer-friendly form from the Council websites. Posting it to Masterton District Council, Freepost 112477, PO Box 444, Masterton 5840, or drop it off to one of our libraries or customer service centres. Masterton District Council 161 Queen Street, Masterton Carterton District Council 28 Holloway Street, Carterton South Wairarapa District Council 19 Kitchener Street, Martinborough Phoning the Masterton team on 06 370 6300 between 9am and 4pm Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays) and telling us what you think. Hearings will be held in August for anyone who would like to speak to their submission. The Wairarapa Policy Working Group will deliberate on 19 August with the Bylaw expected to be adopted by September and taking effect from 1 October. For reference the proposed bylaw is divided into the following parts:
RNZ News
12 hours ago
- RNZ News
Historic Christchurch theatre to be sold by council
The council has spent about $8m on the site so far. Photo: Supplied The historic Odeon Theatre in Christchurch is to be sold by the Canterbury Regional Council, which purchased the quake-damaged building in 2020. The council bought the Category One Historic Places building, along with the neighbouring Lawrie & Wilson Auctioneers building and several other nearby parcels of land. At today's council meeting, councillor Nick Ward said about $8 million had been spent on the site, including the purchase price, maintenance costs and the cost to stabilise the earthquake-damaged frontage of the theatre. The Odeon Theatre is the oldest masonry theatre in New Zealand having been built in 1883 and is a Historic Places Category 1 building. One of the most notable uses was for the public meetings held in 1893 when Kate Sheppard led the campaign for women's suffrage from Christchurch. The building is currently partly-demolished, and propped up. The Lawrie and Wilson's building is a Historic Place Category 2 building, built in 1910. That building has now been restored and is being rented out as a office space. The buildings and land neighbour the Canterbury Regional Council headquarters. Inside the Odeon Theatre. Photo: Supplied When the council purchased the buildings, it said it wanted to enable flexibility for future developments, preserve historically significant buildings and control developments around its headquarters. The council staff report said in 2023 the council put the site out to tender for a long-term lease, but was unsuccessful. The report said holding on to the land parcels would have ongoing costs, including interest on borrowing, rates and about $350-400,000 a year in maintenance. It noted that the development of CBD commercial land was not the council's core business. The report recommended the council sell the sites, but also presented options to hold on to the sites, or lease them out for development. At today's council meeting the council voted to sell the sites, with the proposal supported by 15 of the 16 regional councillors. Councillor Joe Davies - who was the only councillor to vote against the proposal - said he thought the central city land was strategic, and the council should keep hold of it. Councillor Ward said he had a love of old buildings, but a commercial decision needed to be made. "I know what it has cost us to date, and it is around $8 million. So the sooner we can move on and sell the Odeon and square up the parcel of land next to it, the better for all of us. It's not our core business. Sometimes the first loss is the best loss and you just have to move on." The council report said an external report had confirmed that the likelihood of the Odeon having its heritage protection removed, allowing its demolition, was very low. The council voted 15-1 to sell the parcel of land. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
