The South Taranaki District Council yesterday adopted its annual report for the 2010-11 financial year with a budget surplus of $4.1million.
The surplus was slightly less than the budgeted $4.8million, due mainly to several one-off accounting adjustments as well as unbudgeted expenditure on the Patea Freezing Works clean-up ($244,000) and grants to Cinema 2 ($126,000) and Aotea Utanganui - Museum of South Taranaki ($200,000).
The council's chief executive, Craig Stevenson, said the healthy surplus was the result of strong returns from council's Long Term Investment Fund (LTIF), lower interest rates on loan repayments and savings from internal efficiencies.
"Savings from an internal efficiency review conducted almost two years ago continue to flow through with personnel costs alone being $217,000 under budget," Mr Stevenson said.
"This further demonstrates our commitment towards running a lean and efficient organisation and being prudent with every dollar."
That prudent approach was reinforced by South Taranaki Mayor Ross Dunlop, who pointed out that while last year was a great year for the council's LTIF, the same would probably not be the case for the current financial year.
"The global financial situation is still very precarious and already we have seen the negative effects this has had on our fund.
"It will be vitally important we maintain tight control on our expenditure over the coming years," Mr Dunlop said.
He also highlighted what a busy year it had been for the council.
"We launched a new district website in October which has had over 82,000 visits worldwide.
"After several years planning, Aotea Utanganui opened its doors in Patea.
"The PowerCo Aquatic Centre saw a 4.3 per cent increase in visitor numbers thanks in large part to the new hydroslide, splash park and thermal pool which were added to the complex.
"And our new sport, events and recreation facility, TSB Hub, exceeded our expectations with more than 147,000 people using the facility in its first year."
South Taranaki also hosted some big events, including a first-class pre-season rugby fixture between Taranaki and Waikato, a concert by internationally acclaimed reggae band Kolohe Kai, the Davis Cup tennis tie between the Philippines and New Zealand, Fonterra's annual meeting, the Predicament movie premiere and the New Zealand Small Towns Conference.
The council also won several regional and national awards during the year, including a Taranaki Regional Council Environmental Award for enhancing the Kapuni stream habitat as part of upgrades to the new Kapuni Water Treatment Plant intake; and a Ministry for the Environment's Green Ribbon Award (finalist) in the "Caring for our Water" category and the "People's Choice" Award for best local government new/redeveloped website.
The annual report reflects the period from July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011. Full copies can be viewed online at www.southtaranaki.com or at any local LibraryPlus facility.