Posted: 14 June 2006
10-year ‘Community Plan’ adopted
Northland Regional Council members have formally adopted a comprehensive plan setting out the direction the Council will take over the next decade.
At a special meeting in Whangarei today, Councillors formally adopted the Council’s second Long Term Council Community Plan – the ‘Northland Community Plan 2006-2016’.
Regional Council Chairman Mark Farnsworth says the Council had received 545 public submissions on a draft of the plan, with hearings to consider those comments held last month in Whangarei and Kaitaia.
Mr Farnsworth says many submissions had concerned a Council proposal to fund a $13m stake in a proposed multimillion dollar Okara Park-based regional events centre.
Councillors voted to raise a loan to fund that stake at a separate special Council meeting held solely to determine the events centre issue on 31 May. (Repaying that loan will cost ratepayers in the Kaipara and Far North Districts an additional $5.63 (incl GST) annually and ratepayers in the Whangarei District $33.75, falling to $28.13 after three years.)
Mr Farnsworth says with the events centre issue already determined by Councillors last month, the focus of today’s meeting had been to formally adopt the 150-plus page Community Plan proper, including confirmation of a raft of changes on a number of issues suggested by the public.
“A number of changes were made to the plan as a result of public submissions including:
- A $10,000 contingency fund for expert assessment of applications for outdoor trials or use of genetically modified organisms in Northland by the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) if required
- Joint investigation with the Whangarei District Council and stakeholders into dredging of Whangarei’s Hatea Channel
- A $25,000 grant to the Hokianga Harbour Restoration Society to help fund a Coastal Hazard management Strategy
- A $20,000 contribution towards the identification and recording of details of cultural heritage sites in conjunction with District Councils
- Making provision for a $50,000 Council contribution towards the co-ordination and development of the Arts Industry Sector in Northland
- A provisional $25,000 contribution towards implementation of the Northland Sports Physical Activity Strategy in conjunction with other stakeholders
- A $5000 contribution towards the provision of industry-based/apprenticeship training.”
Mr Farnsworth says the Council’s total operating expenditure during the upcoming 2006/07 financial year – including its stake in the proposed events centre – will be more than $30.3 million.
Excluding a grant for the events centre, the Council expects to spend about $17.4 million on its standard operating costs over the next year, an increase of 15.6% on the current financial year.
“This increase in standard operating costs will add around $4 to the annual rates bill of a property with a land value of $100,000.”
Projects planned by Council over the next year include:
- Further work on Aquaculture Management Areas
- An expanded, $500,000 Environment Fund to increase coastal, biodiversity and other land management systems
- An increased role in co-ordination of Northland’s transport planning
- Completing changes to Council’s Coastal, Water and Soil and Air Quality Plans
- New work managing flooding and tsunami risks
- Ongoing pest control work
- Continuing work with the dairy industry to meet targets in the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord.
Meanwhile, Mr Farnsworth says printed copies of the adopted Northland Community Plan 2006-2016 will be available early next month. The Plan will also be available on the Council’s website www.nrc.govt.nz