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Focus on effective core services outlined in Annual Report

Thursday 27 September 2012, 12:20PM

By Greater Wellington Regional Council

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WELLINGTON

Greater Wellington Regional Council has adopted its Annual Report for the 2011-12 financial year that ended on 30 June 2012.

“Over the previous year we have been extra vigilant in our planning and budgeting to ensure we achieve the best value for money for ratepayers,” said Council Chair Fran Wilde.  

“Through the development of the 2012-22 Long Term Plan, Greater Wellington underwent a rigorous process to analyse how we could reduce costs while continuing to provide the core services and infrastructure that the community has said it wants. Over the coming year we will continue to look at our bottom lines and how we might be able to deliver the same level of service at less cost.”

In the year under review, the planning and delivery of important regional infrastructure projects was progressed, and work around managing the Wellington region’s natural resources continued, said Fran Wilde.

“We delivered a number of diverse programmes and projects, including progressing the Wairarapa Water Use Project, and completion of the upgrade and strengthening of the first of the two Te Marua water storage lakes.”

“In the resource management space we are continuing development of a new Regional Plan, under the governance of Te Upoko Taiao – the Natural Resource Management Committee.  Along with this work we published Air, land and water in the Wellington region – state and trends.  This is a comprehensive report on the state of the region’s environment which indicates that although some of our physical environment is doing well, there are a number of areas that are deteriorating.”

Collaboration with the region’s district and city councils also saw a number of important projects completed this year, Fran Wilde said.

“One of these was the completion of the Porirua Harbour and Catchment Strategy in collaboration with Porirua City Council, Wellington City Council and Ngāti Toa Rangitira. We also worked alongside district and city councils to refresh the Wellington Regional Strategy and establish the Wellington Region Emergency Management Office which brought together the civil defence and emergency management resources of the region’s nine councils into a single shared agency." 

In the year under review, Greater Wellington Regional Council and Porirua City Council jointly commissioned an independent review panel to look at local governance arrangements in the region, said Fran Wilde.

“The Panel is looking at the functions and structure of local government in the Wellington region as well as some wider-scale issues such as planning, infrastructure and regional leadership. In particular, we asked them to consider carefully how local and neighbourhood decision-making on community issues could be strengthened.  We are looking forward to their report at the end of October, prior to adopting a formal Council position.”

Printed copies of the Annual Report will be available prior to 26 October from Greater Wellington offices, and available on Greater Wellington’s website, www.gw.govt.nz.