Kāpiti Coast District Council will consult the community next month on its draft Long-term Plan 2021-41, this includes a proposed 7.8 percent average rates increase for the 2021/22 year.

In making the decision to adopt the consultation document, Councillors acknowledged that weighing up priorities against the need to keep rates affordable had not been an easy task.

Mayor K Gurunathan said while the Council would absolutely prefer to have a lower average rates increase, the Council is facing rising costs on all fronts, including the flow on effects from the pandemic to material prices.

“In 2020/21 we limited the rates increase in response to the impacts of the pandemic but now, like a number of councils across Aotearoa, we need to invest to support our district’s recovery and provide the infrastructure renewals and upgrades we need to maintain core services and prepare for our districts expected growth.

“Unfortunately our district is highly dependent on rates. This is because we don’t have the income-generating assets that other local authorities have to draw on, for example a port or funds set up from the sale of local power suppliers,” said the Mayor.

“Some of what we’re consulting on in this proposed Long-term Plan signals how we might be able to reduce this dependency in the future and ease the rates burden.”

The draft Long-term Plan lays out the planned activities, services and projects the Council plans to deliver over the next 20 years, how much things are likely to cost and how Council plans to pay for them. It also asks for community feedback on Council’s future role in housing, options for renewing the Paekākāriki Seawall, the establishment of a Council-Controlled Organisation (CCO), and whether Council should explore options for how it could potentially have a role in the airports future.

“There’s a lot on the table in this Long-term Plan and we’re keen to hear from as many Kāpiti Coast residents as possible throughout the consultation period. I encourage everyone to pick up a copy of the consultation document when it becomes available and to have their say,” the Mayor said.

The Council will be inviting submissions on its draft Long-term Plan 2021-41 from 7 April to 10 May. Copies of the consultation document and feedback forms will be available online and from Council libraries, pools and service centres from 7 April.

Following consultation all feedback will be reviewed and Council, as the community’s elected representatives, will meet again in June to discuss the adoption of a final Long-term Plan 2021-41.

For further information about the Council’s draft Long-term Plan 2021-41 and consultation activities visit haveyoursay.kapiticoast.govt.nz/longtermplan

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