Western Bay of Plenty District Council could put off adopting its Annual Plan

Western Bay of Plenty District Council's head office on Barkes Corner in Tauranga. Photo / Andrew Warner

Western Bay of Plenty District Council is considering delaying adopting its Annual Plan for two months.

The delay would allow more time to finish property revaluations allow more consultation on financial contributions from developers.

The final decision would be made on June 14, when the council’s Annual Plan Committee meets.

A delay would move the plan’s implementation from June 30 to August 30.

The Annual Plan lays out the council’s projects, budget, fees and charges and rates for the year ahead.

The proposed rates rise for 2023/24 is 7.41 per cent.

Normally councils around New Zealand adopt a plan by June 30 each year, but the council can delay it and still comply with the statutory timeframes.

Council chief executive John Holyoake said it was important the time was taken now to ensure “a true and accurate Annual Plan”.

After consulting on the draft financial contribution charges in March and April, the council had further reviewed its charging models.

Based on that, including feedback from developers, Holyoake said the council had determined that the financial contribution charges need to be amended.

The council gets financial contributions from developers to help cater for growth across the district.

“[The] council wants to ensure that the community is fully informed of the changes arising from the review and therefore is proposing to undertake further consultation on those prior to deciding whether to adopt the changes,” Holyoake said.

”We are committed to taking the time to do it now and do it right, allowing our residents and developers time to consider and provide feedback on these changes.”

Next week, the council’s Annual Plan Committee would look to adopt the updated financial contributions proposal to consult further on the amendments.

The district’s property revaluation process also needed more time for completion. This was mainly due to “resourcing capacity” in the valuation sector, the council said.

Quotable Value was doing the valuations and the process would be audited by the Valuer-General.

”Providing more time will allow QV to complete this work, release the valuations to our community and receive any objections,” Holyoake said.

Every council in New Zealand has to carry out a revaluation at least every three years under the Ratings Valuations Act 1998. The council’s last revaluation was done in 2020.

”When we look at the combined impact of these two issues on our annual plan process, it makes sense that we’d consider this delay,” Holyoake said.

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