MEDIA RELEASE

Final Kāpiti Coast District Council meeting for triennium

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

The Kāpiti Coast District Council has met for the last time in the 2013-2016 triennium and in doing so adopted the Council’s 2015/16 Annual Report.

Chief Executive Pat Dougherty says the 2015-16 year saw work begin on the current long term plan and significant headway being made on a number of key initiatives.

“In addition, we’ve continued to deliver a full range of services to our community and respond to opportunities and challenges during the year,” Mr Dougherty says.

“Underpinning this is our on-going efforts to improve how we work with, and deliver services to, our residents and ratepayers. It’s very pleasing to see overall resident satisfaction has continued to improve this past year.”

Other key decisions made at the final meeting included endorsing an approach to renaming the current State Highway 1 and adopting an reviewed Cemeteries Bylaw.

Mayor Ross Church says that in adopting the bylaw, the Council chose to tweak the provisions around the scattering of ashes.

“We still maintain that there are public places where the scattering of ashes would be offensive to some people. But we have removed reference to people requiring the prior permission of the Council to scatter ashes in approved areas. Many councillors believed was an unnecessary process step for families to navigate,” he says.

“The bylaw states that ashes may be deposited on Council-approved areas of public land. We’ll be preparing educational material to show approved locations and will work closely with funeral directors and other relevant organisations to make sure it is easily available to the public.”

Today’s meeting was the last of more than 125 formal Council and committee meetings of the triennium.

NOTE:

The new bylaw provisions relating to ashes are:
Ashes may be deposited on private property with the agreement of the owner. Ashes may be deposited on Council approved areas of public land.

The Council noted that educational material with regards to the disposal of ashes on public land, showing approved locations, will be made available by Council and distributed to funeral directors and other relevant organisations.

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