Draft Annual Plan 2014-2015 (ARCHIVED)

Submissions to the Draft Annual Plan 2014/15

Submissions on the Draft Annual Plan closed at 3pm on Thursday 1 May 2014. Copies of the submissions have been collated into two volumes:

• All submissions in one file
• Hearings - Submissions of those presenting to council

These volumes are available to view on our external submissions website. Please note these files are large and may take some time to download. If you have problems downloading from this website, hardcopies are available at all regional council offices.

A summary of submissions by topic has been produced and is available below. 

Download the Summary of Submissions (PDF 158 KB) (PDF, 160KB)

Hearings

All residents are welcome to attend the Draft Annual Plan hearings and listen to the submissions presented. Submitters who have indicated they wish to speak at the hearings will be contacted by email, letter or phone to confirm their appointment time.

Whangarei – Tuesday 13 May commencing at 10.00 am.
Northland Regional Council Chambers, 36 Water Street, Whangarei.

Wednesday 14 and Thursday 15 May have been scheduled IF REQUIRED.

Hearings information for attendees

This document provides some information on what to expect when you come to speak in support of your submission.

Download the hearings information sheet (PDF 66 KB) (PDF, 65KB)

 

What is the Draft Annual Plan?

The main purpose of the Draft Annual Plan (DAP) is to provide updated financial information on the budget and rates for the 2014/2015 year, and to offer you, the community the opportunity to help determine where and how the budget is spent.

The Draft Annual Plan 2014/2015 identifies any changes or additions to the financial information included in the Long Term Plan 2012-2022 for the 2014/2015 financial year.

For further detail it is important that this Draft Annual Plan is read in conjunction with the Long Term Plan 2012-2022.

Some may wonder about the relevance of our DAP given the current debate over what form Northland's local government should take and whether the regional council will even be around in future. However, our draft is very much based on a 'business as usual' approach as if any major changes do happen, they'll be well outside the 12 months it covers.

Our Long Term Plan (LTP) 2012-2022 indicates an average general rates rise of 7.22 percent in 2014/2015. But through careful cost management and better-than-expected investment returns, not only are we now forecasting a nil average general rates rise; we actually plan to do more for the same money.

We're proposing to give our popular Environment Fund a $235,000 boost over the next 12 months, increasing its budget to $635,000 to help more people enhance and protect Northland's natural environment.

Council is also keen to foster stronger ties with tangata whenua and is setting up the Te Taitokerau Regional Māori Advisory Committee. A working party will work with Māori to establish the terms of reference and membership for this important committee.

Under our draft plan, our Waiora Northland Water programme will get $165,000 extra for monitoring – as part of our work with people and our communities through local catchment groups and to help meet our obligations under the National Policy Statement Freshwater and the recently introduced Environmental Reporting Bill.

We also plan to invest up to $100,000 for new aerial photography which will be invaluable for a wide range of tasks including land use planning and an extra $66,000 has been earmarked to better understand and reduce the spread of the disease-causing agent killing kauri trees.

Among other proposed changes our DAP contains from previous LTP forecasts, we intend to transfer a smaller amount – now $1.7M plus interest – into our Investment and Growth Reserve in 2014/2015. (Again this helps keeps costs to ratepayers down, but we're confident the fund – which will already sit at about $4.5M at the start of the 2014/2015 year – will still be sufficient for the types of economic development projects likely to be submitted to it.) We are also proposing to fund $100,000 of regional promotion from the reserve (instead of your rates) as a core economic activity.

Another change from the LTP since its adoption two years ago is the expected cost of the Kotuku flood detention dam which is designed to better protect central Whāngārei from flooding. Costs have been revised upwards by about $1.6M to $8.5M to cover greater than anticipated costs in the completion of a detailed dam design, costs to relocate gas/power/fibre services and land acquisitions.

Construction of this dam – to be paid for via a targeted rate on more than 17,000 properties in Whāngārei's Central Business District and contributing catchment areas – will begin in late 2014.

Despite this, it won't directly affect rates bill this year as council has not changed its Whāngārei Urban Rivers Management Rate for the coming 12 months. (As costs become more certain, we will probably consider doing this as part of our consultation on our next Long Term Plan for 2015-2025).

In the meantime, we'll continue to work with the Urban Whāngārei Rivers Liaison Committee and the community to ensure the project remains affordable. This will include a public meeting on river management that will provide a project update for residents on Wednesday 16 April 2014 at 6pm at the council chambers, 36 Water St.

Meanwhile, although our rates are not expected to rise, we are proposing to increase our non-fixed fees and charges by 2.4%, essentially to recoup inflationary costs and we propose to make minor adjustments to the Navigation, Water Transport and maritime Safety Bylaw charges 2013 and the charging policy to reflect the appropriate split between the public and private benefits that our services deliver.

We are also consulting on the potential sale of council's leasehold investment properties and the criteria we would use for any individual sale.

Details of many of the issues outlined in this foreword and council's wider programme of works for 2014/2015 are spelled out more in the summary, or in the full Draft Annual Plan.

Request a printed copy

You can request a printed copy of the Draft Annual Plan Summary and/or the full Draft Annual Plan to be sent to you by clicking on the REQUEST A COPY link at the top right hand side of this page or by calling us on freephone 0800 002 004.

View Online

You can view or download a full copy of the Draft Annual Plan 2014/2015 and Summary document by clicking on the link/s below.

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The draft plan is available below as a complete file (Full version - 3 MB) or for those using dial-up Internet access, it has been separated into the following sections. A Summary document is also available to download below:

Draft Annual Plan (Overview) - Pages 1-21

• Message from Chairman and Chief Executive
• Your councillors
• About this Draft Annual Plan
• Key changes from the Long Term Plan - issues for consultation
• Overview – our strategic direction
• About our consultation
• Submission form
• Council’s objectives and vision
• Financial overview

Draft Annual Plan (Rates and Funding) - Pages 22-46

• Rating Funding Impact Statement
• Rates
• Prospective Funding Impact Statement
• Summary table of rates

Draft Annual Plan (Council activities) - Pages 47-78

• Our activities
• Resource Management
• River Management
• Economic Development
• Hazard Management
• Transport
• Community Representation and Engagement
• Support Services

Draft Annual Plan (Financials) - Pages 79-end

• Significant financial forecasting assumptions
• Financial statements
• Statement of Accounting Policies
• Proposed amendments to the Navigation, Water Transport and Maritime Safety bylaw charges 2013
• Draft charging policy 2014/15
• Appendices to draft charging policy 2014/15

 

 

ISSN 1179-7878 (print)
ISSN 1179-7886 (online)