CHB Mayor Alex Walker holds a 100-year-old pipe "patched three times in the space of three metres and it has holes in it. It makes me really angry for our community".
CHB Mayor Alex Walker holds a 100-year-old pipe "patched three times in the space of three metres and it has holes in it. It makes me really angry for our community".
Central Hawke's Bay is facing a triple whammy of increased rates, more council debt and higher development levies.
Mayor Alex Walker says it has been heartbreaking to learn of the ''frightening" state of the district's crumbling infrastructure.
Walker says rate increases alone will not fix CHB's problems.
Problems include ageing water systems with century-old pipes that are falling apart, and earthquake - prone public buildings.
The council is proposing to increase rates, borrow more money and raise development levies to fix the "dire state of aged and failing infrastructure".
The council already signalled last year that rate increases are likely, from 3.2 per cent in 2021 to as high as 13.1 per cent in 2026/27.
Walker is calling on ratepayers to read a draft Long Term Plan 2021-2031 consultation document and take time to understand the full extent of the district's damaged infrastructure, which is suffering from decades of neglect.
The document is currently on the council's website in the agenda for the February 11 meeting, but will be formally released by March 1, when it will also be available in hard copy at the Waipawa Library and council office, as well as in the Waipukurau pop-up council office in the Waipukurau Railway Station.
Formal public consultation on the plan will run from March 1-31. Mayor Walker and councillors ask that ratepayers take the time to read the document, understand the challenges and make submissions suring the consultation period.
Once finalised the longterm plan will have an impact on the setting of the district's rates.
District councillors have reviewed the draft LTP consultation document and proposals, which outline "some of the district's most confronting challenges of our time," the council said.
CHB Mayor Alex Walker holds a 100-year-old pipe "patched three times in the space of three metres and it has holes in it. It makes me really angry for our community".
Walker said the state of the district's infrastructure was ''frightening''.
"Uncovering these truths has been absolutely heartbreaking. For decades, rates have been kept artificially low, at the expense of our assets."
Walker urged the community to understand the district's predicament and "how it will affect them, and why we need to work together now".
The plan consultation document provides a summary of the council's financial and infrastructure strategies, key challenges and proposed solutions.
Community feedback will be used to develop the plan, which will come into operation from July.
