Palmerston North City Council is not living within its means: Councillor William Wood

Palmerston North city councillor William Wood has proposed or seconded more than $139m of reductions to the draft long-term plan. Photo / Kevin Bills Media

OPINION

Palmerston North City Council is about to open consultation on its long-term plan (LTP) that sets the direction of council strategy and spending for the next 10 years.

It is reviewed and updated every three years with an opportunity for the public to provide feedback on what is being proposed.

Here are the key facts as I see them:

• The council plans to put rates up cumulatively 34.8 per cent over the next three years, and 106 per cent over the next 10 years.
• The draft proposed rate increase for this year is 11.7 per cent (although this may change slightly before consultation).
• Of the 11.7 per cent, 4 per cent is paying interest on debt, and 2.2 per cent is debt repayment. The money we leverage today will be paid for by the ratepayers and residents of tomorrow. This is why I was one of only two councillors who voted against the council raising its debt limit from 200 per cent of its income to 250 per cent.
• The council’s debt is going to rise from 169 per cent of its income (about $310 million) by the end of 2024-25 to 247 per cent of its income (about $627m) by 2029-30.

The above debt figures don’t include the currently budgeted $647m for the wastewater treatment plant, which will be funded through an off-the-books funding vehicle and will, somewhere in the next four to six years, be paid for by a separate bill sent to the ratepayers of at least $1000 a year.

Some councillors say talking about these facts is “scaremongering”. In my opinion, if informing the community about the facts of the LTP scares people then that’s not scaremongering, that means our plan is scary.

I have proposed or seconded more than $139m of reductions to this plan, many of which narrowly failed seven votes to eight. This means that through submissions we only need to convince one or two councillors to change their vote to bring the cost of the LTP down.

As a councillor opposed to the plan in its current state, I need you to put in a submission to the LTP, specifically saying which projects you would like the council to not do. Simply saying “reduce spending” is not enough.

Here’s a list of some of the programmes I have proposed/seconded reducing spending on that you might like to include in your submission:

• $55m shared walking and cycling pathway from Palmerston North to Ashhurst and Palmerston North to Feilding
• $31m for cycleways in the city
• $22m Streets For People upgrades (think Square East between the Coffee Club and The Plaza)
• $5.7m Cuba St upgrade stage 3
• $29.1m 1500sq m new Awapuni Community Library Hub
• $88m city-wide transport low-cost and low-risk upgrades and Road to Zero (I proposed reducing this from $88m to $50m).

Submissions open in April. You can sign up to be informed when they open at pncc.govt.nz/LTP/Sign-up-for-long-term-plan-updates.

William Wood is a Palmerston North city councillor.