Ratepayers' Quarterly Update

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Ratepayers Quarterly Update April 2011

Striking the balance... from Mayor Harry

Mayor Harry Duynhoven. In local government our continual goal is to strike the right balance between community aspirations and minimisation of cost.

As your Council it’s our legislative role to build a great lifestyle for the community. But we must also keep a watchful eye on costs and strive to offer value for money in everything we do.

When Councillors stand for election, this is the challenge that we all sign up for. And it’s a challenge that’s particularly resonant in the autumn months as we prepare our annual budget and work programme for the coming financial year.

As you read this, four weeks of public consultation on Draft Budget 2011/12 will be coming to an end. We’ve prepared a draft budget that we believe will build on the district’s progress, but we’ve also worked hard to keep the average residential rates increase to just $8 per month.

In future years we already know that we’ll have a much greater challenge to maintain progress while keeping a lid on rates increases, because of issues needing to be addressed.

Through the draft budget consultation we’re hoping the community will give us a good steer on our priorities – what we should do more of, less of and everything in between.

If you took part in the consultation, thank you very much for getting involved. All the feedback and suggestions we receive are greatly appreciated and extremely helpful in confirming a budget and work programme that reflects the wishes of the community.

Whatever the make-up of our confirmed budget, you can rest assured we’ll have taken community feedback on board and done our level best to strike that difficult balance between aspiration and cost.

Harry Duynhoven
Mayor

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Budget 2011/12 – what happens next?

With the public consultation period drawing to a close, NPDC managers will now prepare reports on the submissions for consideration by the elected Council.

For those wishing to speak to the Council about their submission, hearings have been scheduled for 30 May to 2 June. The Council will then debate the draft budget on 8 June before final approval on 27 June.

Update your details with us today

We’re currently going through all our customer information to make sure it’s up to date.
You can make sure we’ve got the correct name and address information for you by calling us on 06-759 6060 or updating your details online at newplymouthnz.com/customerdetails.

Draft Budget 2011/12 - How the Council would spend the proposed average residential rate of $156.00 per month

Budget 2011/12.

Wastewater $22.00
Parks $20.33
GST $20.28
Roads $19.66
Water $17.25
Museum and Libraries $14.35
Recreation and Events $8.74
Civic and Democracy Services $8.73
Community Development $7.64
Economic Growth $4.21
Arts $3.90
Regulatory Services $3.12
Stormwater $2.65
Solid Waste $2.51
Emergency Management $0.63

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Popular walkways

Walkway people counters have proved once again our community’s love of exercise and fresh air.
The counters clocked up almost 100,000 people crossing the Te Rewa Rewa Bridge from January to March, while more than 105,000 crossed the bridge over Te Henui Stream. Around 75,000 were counted during this period near the tea house in Pukekura Park.

Lets Be Clear notice about Council Meetings streamed Live on our website.

Do it online

Check the full list of Council services, pay your rates, add your event to the Events Calendar or look up a cemetery plot – there’s a lot you can do on our website.

The site has more than 5,000 pages and includes everything from key Council documents to a community directory with details of hundreds of clubs, organisations and activity providers.

What’s happening on our roads?

Roading Manager Max Aves.

Rain or shine, our roads must stand up to the millions of kilometres driven on them each year. The Council manages this through a rolling programme of maintenance, renewals and improvements. Here are a few of the major roading jobs recently completed, under way now or starting shortly...

Recently completed

The summer resealing programme, placing chip seal on around 90km of roads. “There are around 1,100km of sealed roads in the district and we aim to reseal around 90km, or eight per cent, each year. This means that over a 12-year period we resurface the entire network of sealed roads,” says Manager Roading Assets Max Aves.

The new roundabout at the intersection of Tukapa and Waimea streets in New Plymouth. “This was a great project to complete on behalf of the community,” says Max. “Road users were keen to see safety improvements at that intersection and the feedback since we installed the roundabout has been really positive.”

Under way

Resurfacing in New Plymouth’s CBD. “We’ve just started a four-year programme to improve the surface of Devon Street and many connecting roads in the CBD,” says Max. “We began on Devon Street by the clocktower and then moved onto the section of Gover Street between Courtenay and Molesworth streets. As we finish each stage drivers, pedestrians and cyclists should notice a real improvement to the road surface.”

The project also includes replacing the smoothing treatments on Devon Street’s raised thresholds with permanent concrete ramps and the marking of formal pedestrian crossings at two locations. Work is taking place during nighttime hours (except Friday and Saturday nights) to minimise disruption.

Coming up

Kerb, channel and footpath extensions on Frankley Road, New Plymouth and on Mangorei Road, New Plymouth between Fairfields Garden Centre and Mangorei School. Scheduled to run from mid-April until June.
Flood alleviation work at Hall Terrace, Oakura. This is scheduled to start in mid-April and run for six to eight weeks.

Underslip repairs on rural roads. “In the coming weeks we’ll be doing some work within our rural roading network to reinstate roads that have been damaged by past heavy rainfall events,” says Max. “Avenue and Okoki roads in Urenui are two of the roads to be repaired, along with others in the Clifton ward and Tarata.”

Did you know?

Eighteen cents of every dollar spent by the Council goes on roads.

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Bedding changeovers throughout the district

Parks and garden bed outside Waitara Memorial Hall.

Parks staff have recently completed the changeover of thousands of bedding plants across the district.

“Although some of the beds were still looking good, the plants were at the end of their cycle and the timing for replanting is really important,” says Manager Parks Mark Bruhn. “We’re keen to make sure we’ve got great displays in spring, and we are mindful that the district is playing host to thousands of visitors for Rugby World Cup 2011.”

Cake creation a winner for Gilmour family

Gilmour Family and the winning Cake.

A re-enactment in icing of a desperate dive for the try-line has made one New Plymouth family the winner of The Great Cake Bake-Off for Rugby World Cup 2011.

The Gilmour family entered the competition with a USA-themed cake, featuring three rugby players collapsed on the line with one player stretching out for a try (see photo below).

“My eldest son Kurtis insisted that we enter, as he is rugby mad!” says Anna-Lisa Gilmour. “Both of my boys helped me make the cake and they supervised the icing and made suggestions.

“We went with USA for the cake because when we saw the Webb Ellis Cup at Puke Ariki last year my son decided on dressing in USA colours.” However when it came to the competition prize of any RWC 2011 shirts for the family, they decided on the New Zealand strip.

The competition encouraged the public to bake and design a cake based around one of the five RWC 2011 teams that will be playing at Stadium Taranaki: Ireland, Wales, USA, Namibia or Russia.