Thanks

Thank you to those residents and ratepayers who have taken the time to make a submission to the Council’s Long Term Plan. Today is the second day where councillors have been hearing from submitters in person and we all appreciate that it takes time and energy to turn up and speak. You can be assured it does help councillors to understand public thinking on the issues.

This time around we’ve had fewer submissions overall than some previous years. I think people can see that we’ve weeded out all the non-essential or controversial projects; the message coming through is that, while there’s overall satisfaction in the district’s progress, there’s a wish to keep the rates burden as low as possible.

We’re getting clear feedback that this is not the time for new spending on non-essentials.

While I’m certain that we all want Blenheim, the townships and the wider district to have the best possible facilities and services, as submissions are considered and spending decisions made, councillors will be very conscious that, with the economic downturn, we have to balance progress with careful management of our budgets.

By the time we’re ready to formally adopt our Long Term Plan at the end of this month, I hope we will have been able to achieve a balance between minimising rates and continuing the work needed to make sure the region is in a position to cope with the pressures that arrive with a recovering economy.

Alistair Sowman
Mayor