You may well ask why bother submitting when the council doesn't listen anyway. Believe me, I have heard that hundreds of times in the last year, particularly when the council asked our community to have their say on our 2021-31 Long Term Plan (LTP) and had as its No 1 issue the Whanganui Velodrome project.
The council's preferred option being Option 2: Roofed Velodrome with $20 million capital cost, received the highest submissions in history with 608, with 561 submissions and well over 50 per cent support for a roof, yet the council inexplicably made the decision NOT to proceed, with a 6:6 split vote, including the mayor voting against and councillor Reid abstaining.
These equal votes meant the motion was lost, via council's standing orders, with the council voting against its preferred option.
All I can say in regards to why you should bother to submit, is that submissions can help alter the council's decision-making, even when they have a "preferred option".
That brings me to this upcoming Annual Plan. The new "preferred options" and really the only reason the council needs to consult wider is that it wants to introduce something that it didn't cost into the LTP.
The council wants to introduce kerbside recycling in 2023 at a cost per rating unit (each ratepayer) of $134/year and food waste in 2024 at a cost of $61/year.
For this upcoming year; 2022/23 the average proposed rate increase is 3.9 per cent (about an extra $130 per rates bill) but that will vary slightly with every rateable property. The average residential rate "rise" is actually 4.1 per cent, 6 per cent lifestyle property, 5.2 per cent farming and 1.2 per cent commercial property.
Please understand that although we are asking for your submissions/feedback on the LTP Amendment and particularly "recycling", the above rate increases will not include these new fees, as it will take 12 months to set up for them.
If you do support recycling in 2023 then my understanding is that rates will increase by a proposed 2.8 per cent to 5.1 per cent and for food waste in 2024, rates will increase by a proposed 3.3 per cent to 4.3 per cent, moving our peak debt from $133 million to closer to $140m (2023-24).
I will add that all of this is without including any potential further ratepayer capital funding for the Sarjeant Gallery that we were recently informed has increased by $9.4m to $64.4m and, as it is in the middle of being built, the money must be found. If the council has to fund all this over-run, it will add another 1 per cent to rates every year for 20-25 years, as it would be loan funded.
By the way, the Velodrome is mentioned in this 2022-23 Annual Plan again as, thank goodness, the council found some good common sense to approve $2.5m to replace the rotten track, at the end of those LTP decisions. This money is factored into our Annual Plan, so will not increase rates further than explained.
Some really good work has occurred, led by Ron Cheatley and it's looking very feasible to complete this replacement by the end of 2023 and allow this significant, "Hero" project to be well utilised for its purpose again and enliven Cooks Garden and our central city.
