FAQs

No, you are not obliged to appear at a hearing but you have the right to make your submission personally. You will be allocated up to 5 minutes.  

If you wish to make your submission personally, please indicate this on your submission

Our hearing date is on the 7 June 2023 - the time will be published on our main Tararua District Website at  Agendas & Minutes | Tararua District Council (tararuadc.govt.nz)  

You can leave feedback on any of the topics covered in the proposed Annual Plan on this site. You can also leave feedback via our Antenno App by using the "Feedback" option in the report type menu.  Alternatively, you can print off the last two pages of the consultation document and send your feedback to us by FreePost.

The last day for you to leave your valuable feedback and submissions is Friday, 19 May 2023

Elected Members (councillors) contact details are listed on this page.  Alternatively, you can visit the Tararua District Council Website, go to Council Contacts and click on Councillors.  You will find their contact details there to invite them to speak at your event.  To make it quick, on this page you can simply click on Elected Members ant it will take you to the Tararua District Council councillors contact page

Anyone registered to view the Annual Plan pages can leave their comments which can be read by anyone subscribed - it's a bit like answering on a Facebook post where you leave a comment and others can read and reply.

All feedback or submissions are classed as public information because, within local government, we are obligated around decision making to be as transparent as possible.  Your name and any organisation you represent will be published online, however, we won't publish any personal contact or address information.

You can give your feedback and have your say on the Annual Plan via the survey or downloadable submission form on this website. However, all big changes to our plans or new projects will need to be done through the Long-term Plan. We review this 10-year plan every three years and are in the early stages of this process.  

A Long-term Plan (LTP) is our plan for the next 10 years but has a specific focus on the first 3 years of the LTP.  Council are legally obliged to review the Long-term Plan every 3 years in consultation with the community.

An Annual Plan (AP) looks at year 2 and 3 of a LTP (year 1 is included with each LTP as it is issued.  

Both the LTP and AP are consulted on if there have been significant changes to the current LTP.

Annual plans are how we deliver our long-term plans (LTPs) year on year. They identify our budget and activities, the resources to deliver them and where the resources will come from, for example rates or user charges.

In the same way, our national taxes contribute to the running of the country, Council rates are important to ensure we continue to function and deliver the services to our communities.We set our rates based on the needs of the community, demand for services and affordability of rates.  

This year’s budget includes a proposed rates increase of 13.18%.

A significant portion of this year’s proposed total rates amount is due to fixed cost payments that are beyond our control.

 Theseinclude

• increasing interest payments on our debt
• high inflation which is pushing up the price of goods and services
• disruptions in the supply chain
• the ongoing increase in compliance and regulations that Local Government must keep up
• our infrastructure is already ageing and under-performing, which means we’ll have to replace or significantly upgrade it in the coming years.  

We have looked at every single Council operating cost and rationalised budgets as much as we can. We have looked hard at every service, programme and project on our books to find areas where scope can be reduced, or we can delay nonessential work. We have taken steps to reduce costs, including deferring decisions about some new additional funding to next year, and increasing some user fees and charges. 

Without the interventions listed above, the rates increase would be over 20%.

Any further reductions to reduce rates would require a reduction in the service levels.This will be a discussion that Council will have during the LTP 24-34 process. 

The activities where we had significant cost areas, we are unable to reduce service levels (example water, wastewater, roading and solid waste). We have, where possible, significantly increased fees & charges to reduce the overall rates impact.

Depreciation funding is away to account for the wear and tear of assets such as bridges, roads, parks, and water treatment plants over time. These assets need to be renewed or replaced eventually, and depreciation helps to calculate the cost of this process. By funding this depreciation through rates each year, ratepayers can contribute their fair share towards the use of these assets, both currently and in the future.

By increasing the level of depreciation that we are un-funding, Council may not have the required reserves to pay for replacement of assets in the future. Council would need to borrow the money to replace the assets. There is a risk that Council may not be able to borrow all the money it needs as there is a limit on the amount Council can borrow. 

Hence, we have recommended repaying the amount of reduced funding over the next 10 years.

The funding council has received for the 3 Water Transition is covering the additional costs required to provide information and work with Central Government over this time. A portion of this funding has been used to offset staff costs for completing this work ($26k). 

The use of these funds also had to meet specific funding criteria and as such we cannot use it to offset rates. They had to be for specific projects that are either new or used to accelerate, scale-up and/or enhance the quality of investment already in our Annual Plan/LTP.

Council is able to propose a rates increase higher than the LTP. The Financial Strategy is a guiding document for decision making and ensuring Council is making prudent decisions. As the levels of inflation and interest have changed significantly from the time the LTP was set, to keep rates below the level of the LTP would require a reduction in the service levels ratepayers have asked for.

Refer to page 17 of our Consultation Document or the Rates Increase webpage.

Targeted rates are paid by a specific group of ratepayers who receive a specific service, for example

• water targeted rates for properties connected to our water supply.
• Kerbside recycling targeted rate for properties that receive kerbside recycling.