26 February 04
Media Release

Waitakere City Council Annual Plan
deliberations begin

Deliberations on Waitakere City Council’s draft annual plan and budget for 2004/05 will begin tomorrow, with the first of a series of meetings that run through until 11 March.

The Council will be deliberating on a set of recommendations and a suggested budget, that has been developed by the staff. In their deliberations, they will decide what to accept and reject and what, if anything, to add or change. The Council will then publish its draft Annual Plan for public consultation, based on the outcome of those decisions.

The Councillors will be deliberating on a suggested budget that would, if accepted, result in a council controlled rates increase of just 3.53%. This compares with the 4.75% originally indicated in the Long term Council Community Plan (LTCCP), last year.

“We cannot control regional levies and they are expected to show an increase of just under 1%. However, we can control Council expenditure very tightly and that’s what we have done in the budget we are offering to Councillors, as the starting point for their deliberations,” says Council Chief Executive Mr Harry O’Rourke.

The Annual Plan 2004/05 forms part of year two of the 10-year LTCCP, which was extensively consulted with the public before being published last year.

Ends

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