Long-term Plan hearing set for Wednesday

Councillors will hear submissions on the Long-term Plan proposals and associated documents, this Wednesday (23 June), with 16 submitters scheduled to speak in the Council Chambers at Environment Southland, starting at 10am.

The Long-term Plan consultation document Tō tātou haerenga – Our journey was released for public feedback on 4 May, with a focus on the increased work required to meet the community and Central Government’s growing expectations particularly in relation to freshwater and climate change resilience.

The Council funds its activities from a variety of sources including dividends from its majority shareholding in South Port, financial investment, fees, charges, levies and rates. However, over the last 18 months, the Council has had a significant reduction in income due to the impacts of Covid-19, which effectively stopped all marine fees which are paid by visiting cruise ships. The effects of additional costs to carry out repairs not covered by insurance from the 2020 flooding event were also significant.

In the Long-term Plan consultation document, Council proposed two options for rates increases to fund costs of the work programme over the next three years – 20% or 16%, with different implications on debt for each.

A second significant item for consultation was a proposal to add a new rate for the Waituna rating district to carry out bank stabilisation.

There were also a number of other documents, policies and strategies the community had the opportunity to provide feedback on.

Fifty submitters provided written feedback on the proposals. A meeting to consider all of the submissions received and to deliberate on how to proceed will take place on 29 June 2021. The final Long‑term Plan (including any changes) will then be audited and adopted by Council on 30 July 2021.

Links to the submission documents are available at https://www.haveyoursay.es.govt.nz/