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Kaipara District Council last month adopted an annual plan for 2023-2024 providing for a 4.96 per cent increase in general and targeted rates, and a decrease of 5.94 in water rates.
Meeting in Mangawhai, councillors praised council staff for finding ways to meet the goal of keeping rising rates below five per cent, but also recognised that with inflation and the high cost of living many people were struggling.
“I would like to acknowledge the ratepayers that are doing it hard at the moment,” Councillor Rachael Williams said. “This will just be another increase on top of more increases that are coming – the petrol, road-user charges, all of the other things that are going to come back, which will make it harder for people and their budgets. It’s tough.”
Sustainable growth and investment general manager Sue Davidson told the meeting the proposal was “reasonably pleasing, given other councils have determined that their rates are going up quite a lot more than that”.
“We’ve been heavily scrutinising our expenditure to get it down to the 4.9 per cent.”
Councillor Pera Paniora said that was “something to be applauded”, noting that the Whangarei District Council was increasing rates by 7.9 per cent and the Far North district council by 8.63 per cent. (Auckland Council has approved an average general rates increase of 11 per cent.)
The annual plan came into effect at the start of the financial year, and the new rates applied from July 1.
For those on council water supply, the water by meter charge has decreased by 5.94 per cent, “due to a number of water projects moving from operational into capital expenditure,” the council said. “The fixed charge for the first cubic metre of water (which covers the cost of treatment plants and other overheads) has also been reduced from $373 to $211.”
The long-term plan for 2021-2031, which sets the strategic direction and work programme for the 10 years ahead and was adopted in mid-2021, had provided for an increase this year of 3.92 per cent for general and targeted rates, and an increase of 4.06 per cent for water by meter.
Davidson listed some of the factors that she said accounted for the differences between the long-term plan and the annual plan, including:
• new water quality testing regimes imposed by water services regulator Taumata Arowai;
• escalating contract costs of 12.4 per cent for roading;
• major storms early this year meant the council had to revise some costs, including replacing some projects with emergency projects;
• District Plan costs had been reduced by $500,000, and the stormwater and pavement revitalisation project in Wood St, Mangawhai had been deferred for a year.
Mayor Craig Jepson thanked staff for doing “a tough job, considering particularly what’s happened with[Cyclone] Gabrielle and the impacts that that has had on our community”.
“Going forward, we can’t rest on our laurels. Next year could be a real challenge to continue to try to keep the rates at an affordable level.”
Councillor Mike Howard said the storms had been a very significant one-off factor. “We can only hope that Mother Nature looks after us much better in future years.”
In a statement after the meeting, Jepson acknowledged the impact that the weather events had across the district, and the resulting long-term damage to infrastructure.
“We need to prioritise remediation of our roads urgently,” he said. “We also have to make sure we are prepared for future events by repairing the Dargaville town stopbank, and the Whakahara floodgate and stopbank, and other infrastructure that was damaged.”
Capital projects planned for this year include recladding the Northern Wairoa War Memorial Hall (Dargaville Town Hall), constructing the Dargaville shared path and cycle lanes, and continuing work on the Mangawhai shared path.
“We are pleased to approve an average rates rise under five per cent today, and commend staff for the work they have done,” Jepson said. “Further, we must continue to look for greater efficiencies in the way we operate the council.”
