Annual Plan 2010/11 - What your Council decided...

The Council spent two days last week, following consideration of 1100 submissions, deciding what will and won’t go in the Annual Plan for 2010/11. The elected members were able to reduce total rates spend by nearly $600,000.

Using the new total rates requirement of $89 million, the average increase is 8.9% from last year. This is less than the Council had predicted in its Ten Year Plan. (Note: with 'growth' at 1% the total increase in the rates requirement is 9.9%.)

Using the example in the draft Annual Plan, a residential property with a value of $422,000, will be rated at $1,632 (in the draft it was $1,652). This is $20 less than was in the draft Annual Plan.

The Council's idea to test what the community thought about charging adults 50 cents for books (with the intent of reducing the overall rates requirement for libraries) was unanimously overturned.

The Council agreed to absorb the gst fee increase next year for parking (and some other areas) rather than address these immediately through user fee changes.

The Council will be returning to water billing four times a year (instead of two) because this is what customers prefer.

The Council approved $15,000 towards the Kaka St Reserve and [up to] $60,000 for Matua Bowling Club's artificial green.

The Council approved Route K tolls going up to $2 per car and $5 for heavy trucks in July next year - subject to a further report in November this year.

The final (published) Annual Plan will be available following the Council meeting on 22 June when they formally adopt the decisions made during this process.

More details on all these decisions can be found in any of the reports that went up to the Council for consideration. Please call us on 577 7000 if you want more information.