Councillor's Corner - April 2012

Debt and Progress?
The flurry of submissions to the 10 year plan is over, next time for deliberations and decisions...

For ratepayers it is important to know what is happening, how much we will spend and what the priorities are. No doubt you will have made your views known with your or your community’s submission!

Looking back, the debt has significantly increased in the last decade, we are now no 7 in the list of all 67 councils in NZ.

This is not always comparing apples with apples as some districts have invested heavily in infrastructure such as roads and sewerage whilst others may still face those costs.

The plan is to cap the debt for the next 10 years and keep them well inside the policy limits....watch this space!

Our debt per capita is no 17, our rates per capita are no 44 from the top.

Increases over the last decade were on average 10%, the new plan is planning to have them kept at 3.5 % per annum.

Over the next 10 Year the WDC is looking at spending close to $496 million in capital works, most on transportation, waste, drainage and water plus Parks and Recreation.

We should get our share of this on the coast as well, walking tracks, coastal structures etc that are an important part of why we live here!

The news is looking good for the District, with the NZ Refining company expanding and renewing and thereby creating up to a thousand jobs, the Oracle America’s Cup team stationed around Bream Bay, the inner city improvements with a new focus on “the water heart” and ongoing road improvements to our coast we may be in a better position to attract visitors (= business and jobs) to our coastal paradise.

But we will need to do better still, I’m worried to see the increase in “for lease” signs in downtown Whangarei, businesses are still struggling, no one is having an “easy” time!

All we need is to get a “normal” summer next year, I, for one, am truly sick of the swells and the easterlies that have been pounding our shores, seemingly relentlessly....if only council could fix that!