About NPDC

You are here > Home > The Council & Its People > About NPDC > Who We Are

Who We Are

New Plymouth District Council logo.

The Council manages the environmental, social, economic and cultural well-being of New Plymouth District.

Through consultation with the community the Council sets policies and bylaws which are regularly monitored and reviewed according to need, community feedback and central government regulations.

Operating under the Local Government Act 2002 (which provides the general framework and powers a council has), the Council makes decisions for and on behalf of the local community and sets the district’s overall strategic direction.

About the Council

Every three years the Mayor, 14 councillors and 16 community board members are elected by the district’s enrolled voters. The full Council, sub-committees and standing committees meet on a six-weekly cycle.

The Policy and Monitoring standing committees have delegated authority from the Council to make final decisions on certain matters, and they make recommendations to the council on all others. The four community boards – Clifton, Waitara, Inglewood and Kaitake – as well as the subcommittees and working parties can make recommendations to the standing committees for them to consider.

Community Board Ward Map (One page 23KB PDF)

The third standing committee, the Hearings Commission, is a quasi-judicial body that meets whenever a formal hearing is required – for instance, to hear submissions on a publicly notified resource consent application.

The Chief Executive and approximately 460 full time equivalent staff provide advice and information to the elected members and the public, implement Council decisions and manage the district’s day-to-day operations.

This includes everything from maintaining more than 280 parks and reserves, waste water management and issuing consents and permits, through to providing libraries and other recreational services and ensuring the district’s eateries meet health standards.

Growth and plans for New Plymouth District

We set out plans for the District in the District Plan and the Community Plan (also called the Long-Term Plan or LTP).

The District Plan includes objectives, policies and rules that manage the adverse effects of activities on the environment with a focus on land use and subdivision activities.

The Community Plan is a 10-year plan for the district, reflecting what type of community the district’s residents would like to live in, and showing how we and other organisations will work to build that community. It is reviewed every three years.

Council documents

How we are funded

Our annual operating revenue for 2011/12 is more than $173 million and is raised from a number of places –

Source	Amount 11/12 (millions)
General rates	$41.04m
Uniform annual charges	$22.72m
Fees and charges	$29.69m
Interest and dividends	$23.53m
Borrowings	$17.99m
Grants and subsidies	$14.27m
Reserve funds and accounts (including asset sales)	$24.09m
TOTAL	$173.33 million

Operating expenditure

	Budget 11/12 (millions)
Cultural Services	$14.90m
Community Development	$6.50m
Recreation and Events	$11.97m
Parks	$16.51m
Roads	$22.10m
Solid Waste Management	$4.07m
Stormwater	$2.85m
Water	$10.74m
Waste water	$13.73m
Regulatory Services	$10.01m
Emergency Management and Business Continuance	$0.39m
Economic Growth	$2.87m
Civic and Democracy Services	$5.60m
Management of Investments and Funding	$2.44m
TOTAL	$124.68 million

The surplus of operating revenue over operating expenditure is used to:

Pay off debt.
Pay for roading (capital) improvements, as it was received from Land Transport New Zealand for this purpose.

More detailed information about out budget and expenditure is available in our 2009-2019 Community Plan.

Get in touch with us

As the first point of contact for all Council services, the Customer Support Team is a one-stop-shop on anything from lodging a building consent application, information about road closures through to re-issuing your library books over the phone.

We can also take payments for your rates, parking tickets, dog registrations, water billing and receive complaints and compliments.

In 2010/11:

56,737 enquiries were taken over the counter.
261,673 phone and email enquiries were received.
More than 645 service requests were tracked by the Customer Support Team each month.

And did you know that 94 per cent of all enquiries were resolved at the first point of contact!

If you can’t make it into the Civic Centre or one of the library and service centres in Waitara, Inglewood or Bell Block during business hours, give us a call on 06-759 6060. The call centre is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with a friendly local person at the end of the line every time.

You can also email us at enquiries@npdc.govt.nz, fill in our online contact us form, tweet us via Twitter or post a message on our Facebook page.

Customer Service Standards

We recognise that when you contact us it is important. We want to be responsive in dealing with your requests and issues.

These service standards outline the level of service that you can expect when you contact us.

Telephone calls will be answered within six rings and eighty percent of your enquiries will be resolved at that point.
All communication will be responded to within five working days with either a substantive or an interim reply.
You will be informed of how long an issue will take to resolve. If this changes, we will inform you as to why and what will happen next.

As we work together you can help us by:

Giving us the same courtesy as you would expect from us.
Letting us know what you think of our service – good or bad.
Letting us know when things change, e.g. your mailing address, circumstance regarding the request that you made or details of an application.