FAQs

Proposed increases to rates over the next three years are a result of a combination of factors -

• Increased costs (this is the main reason)
  • For councils, the costs have been magnified, because inflation impacts are much higher for many of the things we need to buy, such as building materials, roading, fuel, concrete.
  • Any of the contractors who do construction, maintenance, and road works for us have to pay more in material costs, fuel and wages which we then need to pay for also.
• Less construction activity
  • When there is less construction happening within our district, there is a decrease in associated revenue (money), such as development contributions and building consent fees.
• Changes in government policies (requiring us to do more or do things differently)
  • These changes require us to invest to adopt different procedures or allocate resources to comply with regulatory standards. Fulfilling these new requirements often means additional costs.
• Building relationships
  • Building and maintaining effective relationships within the community requires ongoing funding so we can implement initiatives aimed at enhancing community engagement, fostering partnerships with local organisations, iwi and sectors, and improving communication channels. These efforts are vital for a thriving community.
• Addressing climate change
  • Initiatives focused on sustainability, and resilience-building require substantial investment in infrastructure upgrades, and environmental protection measures. 

Proposed increases to rates for Kāwhia and Aotea are comparatively higher than the rest of the district for a number of different factors – 

• Higher costs for individual services provided in the Kāwhia and Aotea communities due to increased travel costs (servicing relatively remote communities costs more).
• Smaller rateable property base to spread those costs over, resulting in higher costs per property (less rate payers to spread to burden of costs over).
• Changes to the property values at the last district revaluation, resulting in a bigger increase in the urban areas over the rural, which has flowed through into the LTP (urban rates have gone up throughout the country).
• There are certain ways Council can reduce rates, such as using savings that belong to different communities.  Kāwhia/Aotea have less savings available to use to reduce their rates, whereas Ōtorohanga has more savings from previous years that we could use from activities that are funded by targeted rates (such as Security Patrol, Community Rates etc). 
• Kāwhia/Aotea's main targeted rate funded activities are Water and Community Rates, which had deficits not surpluses.  This means there were no savings to draw from to then lower the proposed rates for that area.

Submitting to our Long Term Plan is easy! Here are the simple steps –

Go to our Long Term Plan website - engage.otodc.govt.nz/ltp

All of our documents and submission form can be found here, otherwise head into one of our sites for a hard copy.

Read our Consultation Document 

Have a read and write down your thoughts, suggestions, support or concerns about what we are proposing. 

Lodge your submission between 28 March and 29 April 2024

Have your say by filling out our online submission form on - engage.otodc.govt.nz/ltp

Or you can head into one of our sites for a hard copy. 

You have the option of then presenting your submission to Council in person. If you would like to do this - make sure you include your contact information so we can follow up.

You can present your submission to us on the week of 27 May 2024 (optional)

Council will meet to listen to people who want to present their submission in person. You will have 15 minutes to present your submission and then Elected Members may have some questions for you. There will be a host to welcome you, walk you through the proceedings and ensure you feel supported during this process. No decisions are made at this stage.

We consider your feedback on 31 May 2024

Council meets to consider all of the submissions received and discuss changes to the

proposed budgets and projects. There is no extra weight given to submissions that have been presented in person, all submissions are considered equally.

We make final decisions and adopt the Long Term Plan on 25 June 2024

The Council meets to formally approve the LTP 2024 - 2034 – including the changes that have been made as a result of the submissions received. Once adopted, the document will be available on our website, at our libraries and Council office. 

We will then contact each submitter in writing to let you know the outcome of your submission.

Our Sites

Council Offices: 17 Maniapoto St, Ōtorohanga, Library Ōtorohanga: 27 Turongo St, Library Kāwhia: 772 Pouewe St

What Council will be doing to mitigate the impacts of climate change -

• Council as a business (being a good corporate citizen) 
  • We are/will be taking action to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions (e.g. vehicle replacement, energy efficiency/reduction, solar)
• Council as a community infrastructure owner 
  • We are ensuring the resilience of our assets (e.g. maintaining community accessibility, continued protection from flooding, possible relocation/upgrade of assets).
• Council as a local governance leader/advocate/enabler
  • We are working with our communities to build understanding of local climate change impacts and identify response plans and adaptation actions.

This work will be reflected in a Climate Change Response Plan to be developed over the next 12-15 months. 

Our communities told us that the work we started in the 2021/31 Long Term Plan to better engage with them has made a difference, and they would like this to continue and for us to do more. 

In this long term plan we’ve included a range of activities for enhanced outreach so that all our communities can benefit from improved connectedness with Council. 

Specifically, we have made planning for:

• Getting out of the Council Chambers and holding some of our meetings in different communities and venues
• More Pop-up Councils (up to 12 per annum) where we bring our customer services out to our communities 
• Taking the library programmes to the people by increasing outreach opportunities to our rural communities, schools, early education centres and marae 

We can provide this extra service for very little additional cost. However, there are ways we could further enhance our outreach services to our people, but they involve the purchase and fitout of a multi-purpose van for in person delivery of Council services and support. 

A kitted-out van would enable us to:

• Provide support in civil defence emergencies including a generator for charging devices and satellite Wi-Fi capability to potentially assist in the case of lost connectivity
• Improve a mobile library service to include books 
• Support communication and engagement events
• Deliver Pop-up Council, off-site governance meetings and library outreach services more efficiently and effectively.

While a van could have multiple benefits and step up the level of service we currently offer, we feel it’s not the time to make this investment. But we are keen to hear from our you and what you think via our Consultation Document. This is one of the three options we are specifically asking your feedback on.

As signalled in our last Long Term Plan, we agreed to undertake an assessment to see if a community wastewater scheme was needed in Kāwhia. This work began 2022 and involved –

• Developing a profile of the condition and performance of septic tanks in Kāwhia
• Testing groundwater and the stormwater entering the harbour for the presence of septic tank wastewater (Note: testing was undertaken over an extended period to cover weather and seasonal variation).

While the assessment is ongoing, the work undertaken signals a high public and environmental health risk associated with continued use of septic tanks, although testing so far has not shown any measurable impact on harbour water quality.

We acknowledge the desirability and value of a community wastewater scheme in Kāwhia but any such scheme must be affordable for the community and the district. 

We believe that affordability can only be achieved with substantial external/government funding, so until that is secured, we will not commit to a new community wastewater scheme in Kāwhia. 

We will, however, continue to monitor septic tank performance and impacts as well as regular sampling of stormwater and ground water.

• Ōtorohanga receives a Funding Assistance Rate (FAR) of 63% from the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF) to subsidise road maintenance and improvements (not including depreciation or interest costs)
• To get this we submit our Roading work programme and costs to Waka Kōtahi every three years
• We will not hear back from Waka Kōtahi until May 2024 and, until the process is completed, our funding is not confirmed
• We already know that Waka Kōtahi is working on different land transport priorities and demands – especially when we take into account the ongoing work needed to recover from cyclones Hale and Gabrielle. 
• There is a possibility that we may not receive the same funding amount from Waka Kōtahi this year, and so we may have to make up the difference by using rates.
• If for some reason we do not receive the same amount of funding for our roads, we’ll consider our options and invite your feedback through our annual plan process next year. We can then make adjustments after hearing what you want us to do.

What is a seal extension?

The permanent sealing of an unsealed road with a chipseal and tar surface. This includes, but is not limited to, road construction, road widening, water table and culvert upgrades, shape correction and road realignment.

Seal extensions are expensive and require significant resource, which would then result in higher rates for our community. Instead, we are focusing on other infrastructure projects and addressing more pressing needs within the district. 

Seal extensions are not subsidised by Waka Kotahi, so the full cost would be borne by ratepayers.

• We are now proposing to apply a single targeted rate for all three walls across both communities (instead of property owners in Kāwhia and Aotea paying separately for the upkeep of their seawalls).
• This proposed change makes the costs for seawalls clearer, more explicit and shares the burden of maintaining the seawalls across a greater number of ratepayers. 
• Our reasons for continuing to invest in our seawalls include:
  • Economic - maintaining the attractiveness and desirability of public and private property in both harbours has benefits for the entire area and not just the individual communities
  • Community unity - protecting where people live helps to keep communities strong and together
  • Environmental - well-maintained seawalls provide crucial protection against coastal erosion and flooding, preserving the natural environment. These walls also protect two of our most notable trees, Te Papa o Karewa and Tangi te Korowhiti. By investing in the upkeep of these walls, the communities of Kāwhia and Aotea show their commitment to safeguarding our coast for future generations.

Options 

Option 1 – Our preferred option 

• Apply a single targeted rate for all three seawalls across both communities.

Option 2 – 

• Each community continues to pay for their own seawalls.

Neither option impacts upon our debt or level of service, both options are based upon our expected level of maintenance continuing.

Local Water Done Well

• We've been planning for wastewater, water supply and stormwater activities, but it's been tricky. Originally, we thought these responsibilities would shift to larger water entities, but the government changed plans. Now, we're told that control over drinking water, stormwater and wastewater will stay local. There are stricter rules on water quality and infrastructure management. Therefore, councils will continue to set aside money specifically for water projects. New or replacement water infrastructure will continue to be funded by loans paid back from rates or user charges.

What it means for us

• Until we know more about the government's new plans, we're sticking with our usual plans. We've updated our long term plan for water management and have staff continuing to handle operations. Our water systems are in good shape due to recent upgrades.

Costs

• We're not planning any major new projects just now, but over the long term we expect to take out more loans to cover future work. This means we'll have more debt to pay off. The cost to maintain and operate water assets is expensive.  Water charges for residents are going to increase to cover inflation and ensure continued clean drinking water.

Looking ahead

• We're not sure yet how our role in water management will change. But once we know more, we'll factor that into our plans. We're aware that providing quality water services is essential but costly. We'll explore ways to make services more efficient and affordable, possibly by collaborating with neighbouring councils.