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The Council’s Draft Annual Plan 2007/08 attracted more than 300 submissions during a recent one-month submission period and led to public hearings in Kaipara and Whangarei late last month.

Councillors today formally adopted a revised Annual Plan that incorporates a number of changes made as a result of those submissions and the hearings, with Council Chairman Mark Farnsworth expressing gratitude to the many people who took the time to comment and for the calibre of their submissions.

The Council’s plans for the 12 months from July 1 include:

• spending about $1M (excl GST) from reserves to help fund the designation of an Oakleigh to Marsden Pt rail corridor
• establishing  (subject to a satisfactory business case study) an Infrastructure Development Authority as a funding mechanism for future infrastructure projects
• a $100,000 contribution to dredge Whangarei’s Hatea Channel, with another $100,000 earmarked for navigation aids in the 2008/09 year.  Consideration will also be given to ways that trailer boat owners can contribute to navigation aids
• introducing a new Kaihu River Rate to fund river maintenance work on the Kaihu River, which will affect about 400 landowners in the Kaipara District.  Changes made during the submission process mean this rate is now expected to net the Council about $80,000 (incl GST) over the next 12 months, $58,000 less than first proposed in the Draft Plan.

The final 120-plus page Annual Plan allows for $36.2M of NRC spending over the next 12-months, $9.71M (incl GST) of it to be collected via rates – an increase of almost $1.1M or 12.8 percent - on the current financial year.

However, Mr Farnsworth says changes made as a result of submissions mean the rise is now less than a 13.4% rates increase initially forecast in the Draft Annual Plan.  

He says even with the reduced increase, overall Regional Council rates will still remain relatively low, with an average annual bill of $121 (incl GST) for each of the 80,125 rateable properties on the Council’s books.

Mr Farnsworth says the remainder of the Council’s 2007/08 budget will come from investments, fees and charges and a one-off loan of $12M to fund a $12.5M grant for a proposed Regional Events Centre. (This grant was originally planned to occur in the current financial year but was deferred.)

He says in general, the newly-adopted Plan follows a direction set out in the NRC’s previously-approved Long Term Council Community Plan 2006-2016.

A final version of the Annual Plan is expected to be printed and distributed late next month.  It will also be available on the Council’s website www.nrc.govt.nz