Public opinion from community engagement factored strongly into decisions made about Hamilton City Council’s draft Annual Plan yesterday (3 June).

The deliberations meeting followed a month of community consultation on the Annual Plan, which received 263 responses and had 13 residents deliver verbal submissions.

The voice of the community was especially heard around the need to increase cycle safety on the existing network, with Council approving funding of $360,000 (includes 51% Waka Kotahi subsidy) for cycle wands to be brought forward from the 2023-24 budget to 2022-23.

Council will also allocate a further $1 million towards minor cycle facility improvements, subject to at least 51% of this being subsidised by central Government.

All of the proposed additional projects put forward for community feedback will be included in Council’s 2022-23 Annual Plan.

These include:

• a pilot programme to create school travel plans for two clusters of Hamilton schools ($140,000)
• support for community groups to deliver Council’s Welcoming Plan ($75,000)
• improved maintenance of the Burial Lawn at Hamilton Cemetery ($75,000)
• an initiative to increase electricity resilience and sustainability at Pukete Wastewater Treatment Plant ($4.3 million).

Cycling advocacy also helped the ‘Bikes on Pipes’ initiative progress, enabling shared cycling and walking paths to be built on top of wastewater infrastructure across gullies in the Peacocke area.

The project is scheduled for beyond the 2022/23 financial year but committing to this funding now will allow the construction plans to include this.

Council’s proposed budget approach - to increase its borrowing to cover unforeseen cost pressures and new projects, rather than increase rates above the projected 4.9% or cut its work programme – was also passed.

Council’s financial position was also updated.

This has seen a balancing the books deficit of $14 million rather than the $12 million forecast prior.

This is a result of increased depreciation expense resulting from the revaluation of eight categories of asset classes, and a revised inflation assumption.

Council approved the following changes to the financial strategy for 2022/23 as follows:

• the average rates increase for 2022-23 remains at 4.9% as proposed in the 2021-31 Long-Term Plan.
• 221% debt-to-revenue ratio
• $825 million net debt
• balancing the books deficit of $14 million in 2022-23
• balancing the books is achieved in year six (2026-27), three years later than forecast in the Long-Term Plan meaning everyday revenue will meet everyday costs from this year on.

To absorb an unforeseen rise in inflation, Council agreed to increasing personnel operating expenditure to 6%, other operating expenditure to 5%, 3% for cost-stable capital projects, and 7% for capital projects assessed as more likely to be subject to higher inflation.

Council has been working on the 2022-23 Annual Plan since November 2021.

Council met for more than 30 hours between 17 – 31 March. After robust debate and what should and shouldn’t be included in the Annual Plan, Councillors opted to consult with the public from 20 April to 20 May.

Council staff will now update the Annual Plan for further review by Elected Members prior to it being adopted on 30 June.

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