Far North District Council Long Term Plan 2015-25 Issn: 1170-5205 Long Term Plan 2015 -25 Contents
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FAR NORTH DISTRICT COUNCIL LONG TERM PLAN 2015-25 ISSN: 1170-5205 LONG TERM PLAN 2015 -25 CONTENTS Page Welcome 5 Your Council 9 Council Vision, Mission, and Principles 15 Community Outcomes and Council Goals 19 Council’s Strategic Priorities 25 Planning through Performance Management 27 Key Decisions 29 Corporate Assumptions 47 30 year Infrastructure Strategy 67 Activity Groups 125 Roading and Footpaths Group 127 Stormwater Group 155 Water Supply Group 167 Wastewater Group 183 Waste Management Group 201 District Facilities Group 213 Environmental Management Group 279 Strategic Planning and Policy Group 309 Governance and Strategic Administration Group 339 Council Controlled Trading Organisation 349 Financial Strategy 353 Funding Impact Statement 373 Prospective Financial Statements and Other Information 419 Revenue and Financing Policy 439 Significance and Engagement Policy Summary 468 Statement of Accounting Policies 469 Water, Sanitary Services and Waste Management Assessment Variations 487 Audit Opinion 489 Glossary 493 LONG TERM PLAN 2015-25 4 WELCOMEWELCOME Nau mai, haere mai. Welcome to the Far North District Council’s Long Term Plan for 2015-25. The Long Term Plan is the most important document Council produces. It outlines the infrastructure and financial challenges the Council faces and its strategy for addressing these and other priorities over the next 10 years. The Long Term Plan 2015-25 is part of a series of 10-year plans which Council reviews every years as required by the Government. Each plan builds on the direction set in the previous plan, but it also takes account of how the world and our district have moved on over the last three years and the new issues and challenges we face. Since Council finalised the last plan in in 2012, there has been an amendment to the Local Government Act 2002 which governs the 10-year planning process. The Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Act 2014 requires councils to produce a 30-year Infrastructure Strategy and to include this in their Long Term Plans. They must also produce a concise and focused consultation Document for a proposed Long Term Plan, instead of a long and technical Draft Long Term Plan. They must then seek public submissions on this consultation document via a Special Consultative Process (SCP). This document needs to prompt the ‘right debate’ in the community and provide an effective basis for public participation in the Long Term Plan decision-making process by succinctly outlining: Key Long Term Plan issues clearly and simply The main options for addressing these issues, including the Council’s preferred option The likely impact that proceeding with the proposals will have on rates, debt and levels of service Any significant changes proposed to funding operating and capital expenditure, including changes to the rating system Other matters of public interest relating to the proposed financial and infrastructure strategies How people can become involved in the Long Term Plan consultation process Where the public may obtain relevant information. Council published its consultation document and a set of underlying documents (including a 30-year Infrastructure Strategy) on 23 March 2015 and held 10 community meetings and hui across the District in March and April to give the public opportunities to ask questions and voice concerns about proposals in the document. Council received 2,675 submissions to the document and underlying documents. 159 of these submitters spoke about their submissions at public hearings in May. Council finalised this plan on 25 June after carefully deliberating over these submissions on 9 June. LONG TERM PLAN 2015 -25 5 WELCOMEWELCOME MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR Kia ora koutou The consultation document for the Proposed Long Term Plan 2015-25 outlined a significant programme of capital works designed to address historic gaps in services and infrastructure. We were acutely aware of the costs these works would create for households, so provided a range of options for addressing these. These included lower cost options for small service level improvements to higher cost options for higher levels of service. We also needed people to make choices between competing projects. Most people understand that improving our water supplies and fixing failing sewerage systems are high priorities, but there is also community interest – particularly in Kaitaia – in forming partnerships to build indoor, heated swimming pools. Our consultation document set out the costs of doing all three so ratepayers could draw their own conclusions about what was affordable, sensible and realistic. We also encouraged people to balance the needs of current and future generations and to think about where our priorities should lie as a district, which is the second largest in the North Island and includes large tracts of unrateable or commercially unproductive land. We were impressed with the turnout at the 10 community meetings and hui we held across the District. Councils typically struggle to involve the wider community in their decision-making, so we appreciate the fact that many people in each community took the time to come and talk to us. We are also grateful to the 2,675 people who made submissions to the plan. While most of these submissions were from people who wanted the Council to partly fund a pool in Kaitaia, the quality of the other submissions gave us a good understanding of the community’s concerns. We were pleased to see that, in most cases, the Council’s preferred option for addressing a particular issue was also the option supported by most submitters. In fact, nearly 80% (27/33) of the options the Council proposed to address infrastructure and funding issues were supported by the majority of submitters. We are committed to being a council that is guided by the community in its decision making, so it was gratifying to see this level of support for our plan, particularly as some of our preferred proposals weren’t the cheapest options. We can now move forward with a significant works programme that includes nearly $18 million of improvements to the roading network, $23.7 million to progress an upgrade of Kerikeri and Paihia’s sewerage systems when a multi-criteria, cost-benefit analysis has been completed and $13.7 million to reduce leakages from Kaitaia’s leaking sewerage system. Water projects funded in the plan include $6.8 million for a new Paihia water treatment plant and raw water storage, $3.6 million for a new Kaitaia water source, $2.2 million to improve the quality of Te Kao’s water, $1.32 million and $370,000 respectively to make the water supplies at Opononi-Omapere and Rawene-Omanaia more drought-resilient. The plan should satisfy the 2,210 people who wanted to see the Council partially fund an $8.38 million indoor, heated swimming pool in Kaitaia and voted to fund 33.33% of the capital costs from a targeted differential rate no earlier than 2018/19, provided the community raises 66.66% of these costs. But it should also please submitters who weren’t ready for new pools in Kerikeri and LONG TERM PLAN 2015 -25 6 WELCOMEWELCOME Kaikohe. We haven’t included funding in this plan for these proposals, but will ask staff to work with groups on options to include in the 2018-28 plan. We were pleased to receive a $3 million grant from the Government to complete the Twin Coast Cycle Trail after we published our consultation document. Northland Regional Council has approved a $900,000 grant application to Northland Inc. to meet the balance of costs and we will decide how to fund a permanent trail from Opua to Taumarere in year three of the plan, however these costs have not been included in the plan. Community recreational facilities in this plan include Te Ahu and Te Hiku Sports Hub in Kaitaia, Turner Centre and sports facilities in Kerikeri, Bay of Islands Recreation Centre in Kawakawa, Turner Centre in Kerikeri, Lindvart Park in Kaikohe. We have also included additional funds to complete a much-needed footpath from Haruru Falls to Waitangi. Most submitters supported our proposals to redirect a $200,000 Community Assistance Fund to core infrastructure renewals, so we plan to suspend this fund in 2015/16, partially restore it to $100,000 in 2016/17 and fully restore it to $200,000 in 2018/19. The majority of submitters were also in favour of halving the grants fund administered by community boards. We are guided by our community boards as much as the community so will reduce this by 25% instead of the proposed 50%. We will also reduce funding for community economic development assistance initiatives from $640,000 to $190,000 as proposed. However, we will include an additional $130,000 in the plan to support generated by the Regional Growth Strategy and He Tangata, He Whenua, He Oranga. Overall, we are proud to have produced a Long Term Plan that represents a significant step forward in terms of addressing historic infrastructure gaps, has a high level of public support and provides a reasonable balance between the ‘must-dos’ and the ‘nice-to- haves’. Ngā mihi Far North Mayor Hon John Carter QSO LONG TERM PLAN 2015 -25 7 WELCOMEWELCOME MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE (ACTING) Kia ora koutou I want to thank His Worship The Hon Mayor John Carter, elected members, general managers and other staff of the Council for the tremendous work they have put into producing this Plan which sets out the Council’s priorities for the next 10 years. Countless hours by a large number of people went into developing our consultation document and underlying documents which included infrastructure and financial strategies and asset management plans. The Council is committed to becoming a high-performance organisation that carries the trust and confidence of the communities it is here to serve.