Long Term Plan 2021-2031

Our Long Term Plan (LTP) for 2021-2031 was adopted on 30 June 2021. 

The LTP sets the budgets, projects and levels of service for the 10-year period, with a particular focus on the first three years. Every three years the LTP is reviewed.

Read the final, audited, LTP here

Building and maintaining essential infrastructure, meeting legislative requirements and keeping up our current levels of service is the foundation of this LTP.

The average rates increase across the district for this financial year (1 July 2021 - 30 June 2022) is set at 8.8 per cent. District-wide, over the 10 years of the LTP, there will be an average rates rise of 5.1 per cent, or $195 per year.

"That's about $4 a week more to pay for a huge range of projects and services right across what our Council delivers," says our Mayor Sandra Goudie.

“Thanks to the strong engagement in this LTP, we’ve laid a solid foundation to address challenges such as the increasing costs of handling rubbish and recycling, keeping communities supplied with drinking water, planning for sustainable growth and addressing climate change,” Mayor Sandra says.

The next decade will see our Council invest $455 million in capital projects plus more than $1 billion to fund day-to-day operations such as:

• Handling rubbish and recycling
• Providing clean drinking water
• Treating wastewater
• Maintaining roads, bridges and footpaths
• Maintaining parks and reserves and sports facilities

The LTP has been independently audited by Audit NZ, who have raised no items of concern. 

The six issues we consulted on

(Photo: Coromandel Town's upgraded water treatment plant with its innovative modular filtration system that can be easily expanded to increase capacity.)

1) We asked for feedback on a ‘must do’ list of capital projects and a ‘nice to have’ list. The feedback from submitters was that particular projects from the ‘nice to have’ list be included. Some of the main additions include:

• Continuing the upgrade to our district's water treatment plants to meet drinking water standards: $17 million over 2021-24 to complete plants in Whangamatā, Hāhei, Onemana and Matarangi
• Tōtara Valley Road, Thames, services extension: $6.5 million over 2021-23
• Coromandel township bypass: $3.4 million over 2023-25
• Wharekaho water supply extension: $3.3 million over 2021/22 and 2023-27
• Hāhei wastewater extension: $2.8 million over 2023-26
• Hāhei water supply extension: $3.4 million over 2023-27
• Whangamatā stormwater improvement: $6.4 million over 2022-26

Other projects of note that were in our consultation’s ‘must do’ capital projects list are:

• Installing water meters in parts of the district where they’re not already in use: $9.6 million over 2021-28 (includes $2.4 million of government Three Waters Reform funding)
• Manaia Road hub (library extension), Tairua: $451,000 over 2022-24
• Pollen Street, Thames infrastructure upgrade: $16.4 million over 2023-25
• Thames sub-regional pool: $14 million over 2025-27
• Whitianga Refuse Transfer Station: $3 million over 2021/22

2) Matarangi land purchase (community initiative). Our Council agreed to work with the community to protect the land in question from development in the long term.

• $2 million has been allocated in 2023/24 to purchase the land subject to further investigation and discussions with community groups.

3) Whangamatā community pool. A $500,000 grant will be provided to Whangamatā Community Swimming Pool Inc over 2021-23 so that important maintenance and improvements can be made.

4) Sale of land in Whangamatā. A decision to declare the Council-owned property at 101 Lindsay Road surplus to requirements has deferred to allow the best use of the land to be determined.

5) The increasing cost of rubbish and recycling.

• The third (mid-week) rubbish collection for Whangamatā and Pāuanui between Boxing Day and early February will be discontinued, to match the same collection frequency in other eastern seaboard communities.
• The Matarangi and Pāuanui Refuse Transfer Stations will be retained with the same level of service.
• The rubbish Moloks at Whangapoua and Ōpito Bay will be removed.
• Staff are investigating the cost implications of increased hours of operation at the Matarangi and Pāuanui Refuse Transfer Stations during the summer period.

6) Fees and charges – getting visitors and users to pay their fair share.

• The current mix of fees and charges and rates revenue to pay for facilities and services will be maintained.
• Fees and charges for harbour facilities (including boat launching/trailer parking fees) are being kept at 2020/21 levels until a review of costs and a consultation with users of these facilities is completed over the year.

A summary of the main decisions is in Part 2 of the LTP document and full details of the capital programme are in Part 3.

In our consultation, we also received feedback on topics that weren’t in our LTP proposals, such as climate change and emergency alerting options. Our Council’s Greenhouse Gases Reduction Plan Working Group will take your views on climate change on board. Staff will continue to work alongside our communities to ensure that we are all as prepared as possible during any emergency events to complement our national alerting tools.

Changes to fees and charges

Our Council also set the fees and charges for 2021/22 and development contributions, which are payments developers make to cover part of the costs of providing infrastructure to a new development.

The full schedule of fees and charges is at the end of the LTP document, in Part 5. Some examples of changes to fees and charges are:

• Airfield landing fees: $11 to $15 per day
• Dog registration: $80 to $85
• Cemetery plot purchase: $1,300 to $1,500
• Building consent Memorandum of Encumbrance: $700 to $500
• Land Information Memorandum, standard: $250 to $255; commercial: $300 to $310

Development contributions have increased in some areas, but gone down in others, for example:

• Hāhei: $16,542.32 per unit of demand to $25,690.73
• Thames: $5,614.04 to $20,157.94
• Whangamatā: $16,936.73 to $15,456.51

The full list of development contributions is in the fees and charges section of the LTP.

The Infrastructure Strategy and Financial Strategy were also reviewed as part of the LTP process and are included in the LTP document.

What is the Long Term Plan?

The LTP is a key planning document for the Council that we develop every three years.

The LTP outlines all the things the Council does and how they fit together. It contains the strategic direction for Council’s finances and infrastructure. It identifies what will be done over the plan's 10-year period, why our Council is doing those things, and their costs.

Our previous LTP, which covers the 2018-2028 period can be viewed here.