CHB council drops short-term consultation in favour of long term vision

Councillor Shelley Burne-Field.

The CHB District Council is foregoing consulting on its 2017/18 Annual Plan this year in favour of providing an information brochure and conducting more long-term community engagement to create a new "vision" for the district.

Changes to the Local Government Act in 2014 dismissed the need to prepare a draft annual plan, and any requirement to consult on it if it did not have any significant differences from the Long Term Plan.

At its full council meeting this week, all but one councillor agreed not to conduct a formal consultation process on the Annual Plan as had been done in the past.

Councillor Shelley Burne-Field voted against the motion citing concern that the largely new council had been elected to take action and that the Annual Plan was the budgetary planning process through which that could be done.

"There are quite a lot of issues we can consult on - rates, wastewater, building consents - some people are saying to me 'we elected you to make the decisions and they are not being made quickly enough.

"We can catch up on that by doing the Annual Plan consultation."

Other councillors, however, noted that there were no major new issues in the Annual Plan, and that more effective consultation could be carried out through an upcoming initiative, named Project Thrive, that would see the council talking to people throughout the Central Hawke's Bay district.

Councillor Tim Aitken said he agreed that issues like water and wastewater were important and that people wanted to be consulted.

"By going through the Annual Plan we only have a small window of three months to do that. I would rather we go out with Project Thrive and talk to the district and look at the big picture."

Councillor Ian Sharp said formal consultation was more restrictive than sending an information brochure, including draft rate invoices, asking ratepayers for feedback.

"With this Annual Plan there appears to be nothing contentious to consult on specifically - we are not ignoring the public, rather we are asking them for feedback instead of formal consultation."

Mayor Alex Walker said there were no major issues in the Annual Plan that would have a rating impact, and that extra time could be given at public forums held before committee meetings for people to respond to the Annual Plan information.

She said Project Thrive would offer more opportunities for increased community conversations.

The aim of Project Thrive was to develop a strategic vision and direction for Central Hawke's Bay with community conversations held, facilittated by planning consultant Kobus Mentz, which has conducted similar projects with other territorial authorities.

The information gathered would be used to inform the 2018/28 Long Term Plan and District Plan.

The initial cost was estimated to be about $30,000, but councillor David Tennent yesterday queried why that had now risen to between $45,000 and $50,000, and where the money would come from.

Chief financial officer Bronda Smith said the increased cost would accommodate extra meetings in rural communities that hadn't been included in the original proposal, and would cover the likes of hall costs, meeting invites and printing.

"This is in line with budgets for engagement with the Long Term Plan and District Plan, it's covered by those budgets," she said.