Stimulating economic growth, compliance with new environmental legislation, town centre upgrades and affordability were the key themes guiding South Taranaki District Councillors as they adopted their proposed 2021 – 2031 Long Term Plan for public consultation at Monday’s extraordinary council meeting.

For South Taranaki ratepayers, the result is an average rate increase of 3.99% each year over the next ten years the lowest in the region.

South Taranaki Mayor Phil Nixon says the Council’s vision is to make South Taranaki the most liveable District in New Zealand.

“Over the past decade we’ve focussed on upgrading the District’s water infrastructure, key community facilities and implementing projects to make South Taranaki a desirable place to live and do business. We now have a much-improved water network and, since our last Long Term Plan three years ago, we have progressed the Hāwera Town Centre redevelopment, Te Ramanui o Ruapūtahanga and the Nukumaru Station Road extension projects,” says Phil.

“Our focus for the next ten years is to complete these key projects, continue to upgrade our three waters infrastructure with a focus on wastewater, increase our spend on roading, implement our environment and sustainability strategy and create the conditions that encourage sustainable economic growth in the right places, with projects such as the South Taranaki Business Park and town centre upgrades for Manaia, Eltham, Ōpunakē, Pātea and Waverley.”

“At the same time we know we need to keep rates at an affordable level, so we are proposing to fund our key projects with a combination of loans, external funding sources and earnings from the Long Term Investment Fund, rather than through rates,” he says.

“We believe our Long Term Plan proposal strikes the right balance between progress, affordability and providing the services and facilities our communities expect, but we want to know what our residents think.”

Mayor Nixon says the Council’s proposed 2021-2031 Long Term Plan will be available for comment from 31 March until 7 May 2021. Along with a series of public meetings a Consultation Document outlining key issues and proposals in the Plan and the impact on rates will be in the 8 April edition of the Taranaki Star, in Council LibraryPlus facilities and on the Council website www.southtaranaki.com

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