How you can have a say on Whanganui District Council’s future plan - Andrew Tripe

Whanganui District Council's long-term plan is now open for public consultation. Photo / Bevan Conley

OPINION

Are you interested in the future of Whanganui?

The council’s long-term plan is your plan for our future. It is now open for feedback so it’s time to share your ideas.

The long-term plan is a big deal because it looks at where we aim to be in 10 years. As a council, we serve you, our community, and we want to hear what’s important to you so we can reflect it in our plan.

No decisions have been made yet, and providing feedback is simple. Making a formal submission is as easy as filling in a form.

Tough times

Compared to many other councils across the country, our council is in very good order. We have manageable debt and have invested in our infrastructure and water assets well.

Right now we’re in tough economic times and recent data from Local Government New Zealand illustrates the pressure councils have been under – for example, costs for roads and water supply systems are up a hefty 27 per cent from three years ago.

Nationally the average rates rise for next year is 15.3 per cent, with the Buller district highest at 31.8 per cent. Our council’s rates rise was initially looking like 17 per cent but with a lot of hard work we’ve reduced that to a proposed 10.6 per cent increase – but we’ll need to make some changes to get there.

Affordability and aspiration

This long-term plan has two main focuses – cutting services to make rates more affordable and positioning for the future for our medium- to long-term aspirations.

It might seem counter-intuitive to be talking about aspirations at the same time as cutting services for affordability, but these two things are funded very differently – cutting or reducing services has an immediate impact on rates while the cost of investment is spread over many years and across future ratepayers who will benefit from what we do now to improve our district.

In my view, if we don’t invest, we’d be missing an opportunity to set Whanganui up for the future and to lessen rates in the coming years.

Proposed cuts

We’re asking for your thoughts on a number of proposed cuts. Like many in our community, we do not want to cut or reduce services but we find ourselves in an environment where, to keep rates affordable, some tough calls need to be made.

These include Whanganui East Pool, which needs upgrading and is expensive to operate when it’s only open for the summer months.

Also, as the Whanganui Repertory Theatre needs significant work, we’re suggesting closing it for demolition and focusing on upgrading the Royal Whanganui Opera House instead.

We asked you about closing the Rotokawau Virginia Lake aviary last year and now, given the stark reality of the rates rise we’re facing, we’re asking again to see whether views have changed.

Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe.

We’re also proposing to: retain New Zealand Glassworks but seek a buyer for it; close the Davis Library for one day during the week; and remove the hanging flower baskets in the CBD.

These are a few proposals; you can read about other services up for community feedback in the long-term plan consultation document.

Setting ourselves up for the future

I think Whanganui is the best place to live on Earth. We need to navigate these tough times now and at the same time position for our future.

Are we doing the basics? You’ll see in our draft plan we’re committed to maintaining and improving core infrastructure so we’ve significantly increased our capital investment into roading, footpaths and three waters.

In the last long-term plan (2021-2031), total capital expenditure for core infrastructure was $234 million over 10 years – in this long-term plan we’re proposing to raise it to $372m, an increase of almost 60 per cent.

With the basics covered off, one bold idea is a council-owned hotel and carpark to expand Whanganui’s potential to host large-scale events and increase visitor numbers, and deliver flow-on economic benefits to businesses and our community.

Revenue we get from investing in the hotel and carpark could be used to reduce rates in the long term.

The other big projects we’re proposing to invest in include: upgrading the Royal Whanganui Opera House; putting some money towards the Wanganui Surf Lifeguard Service’s new operations centre and tower facility and establishing a shellrock trail along Rapanui Rd to provide a safe way for cyclists and walkers to travel from the city to Kai Iwi Beach.

We’re also proposing to provide funding for marae development.

As well as fostering community connection, marae have in the past been places of refuge during emergency events – if we invest in backup power generators, rainwater storage tanks, and building repairs, marae can continue to play a critical role in helping our community when emergencies like flooding or storms hit.

Share your thoughts

It’s now up to you to give your opinion on what we should cut, what we should keep, and how we should set ourselves up for the future.

Your input will help us navigate these difficult times. There will be a diverse range of views out there so have a chat with family, friends, or your neighbour over the fence to hear some different perspectives.

We’re looking forward to reading the submissions and hearing from those who opt to back up their written submission by presenting directly to us at a council meeting.

Either hop online and do it on the “have your say page” on the Whanganui District Council website or grab a paper copy from council customer services at 101 Guyton St. You have until May 2.

You can find out more about all the issues in this year’s draft long-term plan 2024-2034.