Tackling the future head on: What’s your take?

Our formal consultation for our Long Term Plan proposals closed on Monday 8 April.

We’ve prepared our draft long term plans and budgets for 2024-2034 and beyond, and from 8 March to 8 April we asked for your take on our proposals. There are some big challenges ahead for the Coromandel and we wanted to hear your thoughts on how we tackle them.

You can still read our consultation document ‘Tackling the Future Head on: What’s your take?’ in the ‘Supporting information’ below. It sets out the key things you need to know, including our proposals and budget forecasts. If you still have questions, take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions document below. There's more in-depth information in our other supporting documents as well.

What is the Long Term Plan/LTP?

The LTP is a key planning document that we develop every three years. It outlines all the things our Council does and how they fit together. It contains the strategic direction for Council’s finances and infrastructure, identifies what projects we plan to do over the next 10 years and beyond, and what we estimate it will cost to pay for them. The Plan also sets the rates for the 2024/24 financial year, and forecasts indicative rates for the coming decade.

How do we use your LTP consultation feedback?

While we are required by law to indicate a preferred option for the big issues that we’re asking for feedback on, we do have flexibility to consider changes based on your feedback. All the feedback provided during the consultation period will be noted by our teams and will help inform our final LTP. As part of an open and transparent consultation process, all feedback is treated as public once received.

The challenges ahead

Like many councils around Aotearoa New Zealand, we’ve got some big challenges ahead, but we’re tackling them head on:

A large roading repair and improvement programme to fix damage done by last year’s cyclones
Costly coastal protection works to mitigate the impact of rising sea levels
Ageing infrastructure (like water treatment plants) that must be replaced
The rising cost of living and high inflation
Higher government compliance standards that must be met
A shortage of affordable housing.

If you'd like to know more, watch our Chief Executive Aileen Lawrie and Mayor Len Salt as they discuss some of the key issues impacting our planning for facilities and services.

What were we asking you about?

1. Managing rates spikes

To avoid a large jump in rates in the 2024/25 financial year, we want to spread the proposed increase over the first few years of the LTP. We asked if you want to pay for rates increases straight away, or spread them over two or three years.

Find out more about proposed rate changes:

Find out about the proposed 2024-25 rates on your property using our Rating Information Database (RID). Please note that QV has issued new proposed property valuations for 2024/25, which should be finalised at the beginning of May. As proposed property valuations have generally moved up across our district, this will also impact the range of rates increases for each property within our district.
Read our proposed median rating examples for each Community Board area. The median rating examples are only one example per area and rate type.
The recent revision of property valuations has resulted in a large range of percentage increases across the district.

2. Investing more in future planning

Over the next 10 years, we’re developing a district-wide spatial planning project for areas outside of Thames (which has already had a plan completed). We wanted to know if we should invest more in strategic planning programmes to manage our growth better.

3. Investing in connected communities:

In recovering from the cyclones, we found that our Council had a role to play in facilitating and connecting our communities to existing social services for a collective and better impact. The Government cyclone recovery funding runs out at June 2025, but we’d like to keep investing in the social resilience of our communities. We asked you for feedback on options for investing in community development.

4. Increasing fees and charges to keep rates manageable:

We’re considering increasing fees and charges to keep up with rising costs, including inflation, so that costs can be covered by those who are using the services. We wanted to know if we should increase user fees or stick with the status quo and not increase them.

5. The future of our central office, the Thames Council building:

Our Council office in Mackay Street, Thames has two buildings. Both buildings fall short of current health, safety and seismic standards and this has to be remedied. We asked you about options to bring our buildings up to scratch.