Rates increase signed off by Whanganui District Council, but no one is happy about it

Nine councillors voted in favour of the plan, with two against and one abstaining. Photo / Bevan Conley

Whanganui District Council’s Annual Plan has been officially signed off, but not before impassioned speeches against it were made by two councillors.

Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe said getting to the figure of an 8.3 per cent average rate increase had “not been an easy exercise”.

For an average residential household, the increase would be about $5 a week, he said.

“We, as a council, have gone as low and as hard as possible.

“This is where we’ve landed and that’s the reality. We will, unfortunately, continue to face cost challenges for the next couple of years.”

Councillor Michael Law said the process had been arduous and laden with trials and tribulations.

He voted against the plan.

“It doesn’t matter how you cut it, we have made people worse-off this year. That really hurts me to my core.

“I believe we should have given the option for a reduction in services down to [an] at least 5.5 per cent [rates increase], to at least gather feedback from the public on services we could have cut.”

A late spanner in the works was the Rotokawau Virginia Lake aviary.

Council officers favoured closing it, but that was overridden by elected members.

The Annual Plan will include $50,000 for immediate remedial works, completing a business case and enclosure design options and up to $150,000 for total operating costs.

Councillors Charlie Anderson and Jenny Duncan were vocal critics through the deliberation process of keeping the facility open.

Councillor Ross Fallen said the Annual Plan process would be remembered as “the year of the aviary”, an issue that drove him “nuts”.

As a Castlecliff resident, he had one of the highest rates increases in the district.

“I think we’ve done a good job on rates, as best we can, as has every council around this country,” Fallen said.

“It’s a national issue that we’re under pressure financially in every single direction.”

Councillor Josh Chandulal-Mackay said most councils around the country would agree the rating system was no longer sufficient to meet the needs of funding their services.

A further $50,000 was reinstated into the budget to enable more work on climate change risk and threat assessment for the district.

Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe during this week's council meeting. Photo / Bevan Conley

Councillor Charlotte Melser said she feared the council had done “too little, too late” in terms of climate adaption and resilience.

“If we suffer a significant weather event or natural disaster in the next year or two, we could well be in some pretty serious trouble.

“I want to remind everybody at this table that climate change isn’t going anywhere.”

Lifestyle property owners can expect an average increase of 12.8 per cent, with farms coming in at 7.6 per cent and commercial property at 6 per cent.

The three biggest contributors to the average Whanganui residential rate of $3404 for 2023/24 are wastewater ($580), community and cultural ($590) and parks and recreation ($477).

At the other end of the scale, earthquake strengthening makes up $50, with transportation at $126.

Times were going to get tougher, Deputy Mayor Helen Craig said.

For the first time in the 10 years she had been on council, there had been significant budget cuts.

“I think we are going to be looking at even more next year.”

Councillor Philippa Baker-Hogan voted against the plan, while Councillor Rob Vinsen abstained.

Baker-Hogan’s reasoning lay with the Sarjeant Gallery’s cost escalation - now “a millstone around the council’s neck”.

“In my view, it has not been prudent enough and it has not been transparent enough,” she said.

“We know we’ve got about 1200 properties that will have a 30 per cent rates hike, in our most socially deprived communities.

“I’m speaking up for people who’ve said to me we need to do better.”

Vinsen said his decision was due to one of 48 activities the council was involved in - the port - for which he said governance costs far outweighed projected revenue.

“In the eyes of the public, there has to be some pushback on the costs involved with this port activity.”

Tripe said a council-controlled organisation (CCO) review, which included the port, was already under way.

The balance of keeping rates low but also delivering services was “so very difficult”, he said.

“When people open their rates letters for the first time, that’s going to be the real moment when they see the reality.

“We live in a busy world where I don’t think people have fully understood the magnitude of the rates increase.”

Rates assessments will be mailed to property owners in August.

The Annual Plan sets the council’s budgets from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.