We adopted our 2024-2027 Three Year Plan on 27 June 2024. Our main goal of the plan is to focus on “Healing Our Region for Our Future.”
This plan sets out our commitments to deliver the activities, services and infrastructure our region needs. What we're planning to do, how we'll pay for it and what it means for rates and debt. It also includes measures to monitor and evaluate our progress.
We have a lot of work ahead. To fund our programme of work, we'll increase rates gradually with an 11.4% increase in the first year, 9.8% in the second year and 8.5% in the third. By the end of this period, we aim to have made significant progress in our recovery efforts and to be firmly on the path towards healing and building resilience for our future.
2024-2027 Three Year Plan
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We consulted on 6 options that outlined what we could deliver within our budget constraints versus what we could achieve with more funding over the next 3 years.
We received 173 formal submissions, containing approximately 327 comments and 582 individual submission points.
The 6 options and decisions
We've summarised the decisions on the 6 options, please refer to the 3YP Vol 1 for further details.
Our water - Ō tātau wai
71% of submissions agreed with our preferred option of a 1.5% rates increase for a budget of $47 million over 3 years to enhance the resilience and reliability of our drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure.
Our roads – Ō tātau rori
75% of submissions agreed with our preferred option to maintain our existing budget to meet rising costs of inflation. This includes a 3.7% rates increase for a budget of $84 million over 3 years for road maintenance and improvements.
Recovery
We have $125m government funding for local roading network repairs.
We expect to spend $85 million over the next 3 years. The remainder of funds will be spent post 2027.
Land drainage - Whakaawa wai whenua
74% of submissions agreed with our preferred option for more money in the budget. This includes a 0.9% rates increase for a budget of $4.1 million over 3 years to clear sediment from drains and maintain our drainage network in flood-prone areas. This doubles our previous budget.
Recovery
We've secured $64 million government funding for flood protection. Clearing drains will be a key part of our broader plan to protect homes and properties, particularly those in FOSAL Category 2 and 3 areas.
Large woody debris – Tāwhaowhao kaitā
76% of submissions agreed with our preferred option of a 1.1% rates increase for a budget of $2.7 million over 3 years to manage the most critical areas.
This is the first time we have rated for this type of work, and while it will not cover everything, it allows us to address the most urgent areas. We'll continue to seek additional government funding to speed up debris management efforts.
Recovery
We have $54 million from government to clear woody debris within our water and hill catchments. We've made considerable progress and to date, we're forecast to spend the remaining $19 million over 2025.
Our townships - Ō tātau taone
76% of submissions agreed with our preferred option of a 0.3% rates increase for a $4.3 million budget over 3 years to meet the rising costs of upgrading 2 townships a year, including improvements to footpaths, outdoor spaces, and planting schemes.
Future proofing waste disposal
By 2025, we aim to separate food scraps, green waste, and standardise kerbside recycling collection to better separate our waste.
We'll also deliver our new Resource Recovery and Disposal Centre. This $10.5 million project is 85% externally funded.
We plan to expand our home composting workshops and educational programmes through the Tairāwhiti Environment Centre and across the region to make them more accessible. We'll increase awareness and education around managing waste, preventing illegal dumping, and expanding recycling services to be more accessible.
Consultation document
Consultation on the 2024-2027 Three Year Plan took place between 20 March - 19 April 2024.
2024-2027 Consultation Document
Capital investment programme shown as interactive bubbles
Check out the capital projects and operational expenditure for this 3YP. They display as bubbles - the size of the bubble shows how much money the project is allocated, the bigger the bubble, the bigger the budget.
2023 Environmental Scan
We prepare an environmental scan every 3 years to report on the state of the physical, demographic, economic and infrastructure environment in which it operates. The 2023 Environmental Scan was developed to support and inform the strategic direction of and the prioritisation for the 2024-2027 Three Year Plan.
5 factors have been examined: political, social, economic, environmental, and technological. The scan takes into account the context of our region following 9 major weather events within a 2-year period.
Due to disruption caused by Cyclone Gabrielle, the government changed our legislative requirement for us to produce a Long Term Plan with a ten-year scope. Instead, they allowed us to prepare a plan for 3 years with a focus on recovery, recognising that cyclone damage has created uncertainty around costs, funding and timing. The extent of work ahead also impacts our ability to deliver previously planned projects.
Every 3 years we're required to review and prepare a new Long Term Plan by engaging with our community. This helps your voice set our future direction. This is a requirement under the Local Government Act 2002.