Draft Annual Plan approved
The Council's draft Annual Plan for the year from 1 July will be open for public comment for a month from Monday, 11 April.
The 12-month draft plan was approved by the City Council at a meeting on 17 March and follows closely the commitments made in last year's 2004-14 Long-Term Council Community Plan.
Copies of the draft plan will be available from next week at the Civic Offices (163 Tuam Street), at Council service centres and libraries and on the web.
Included is information about how you can make your thoughts known to the City Council. All submissions on the draft plan must be with the City Council by Friday, 13 May.
Roy Baker, the Council's Corporate Services General Manager, told the Council that, if approved, the draft plan would maintain the levels of service proposed in last year's long-term plan on the basis of a rate increase of 3.49 per cent, slightly under what had been forecast.
Under the law which introduced the long-term council planning model, annual plans are not meant to include radical changes, Mr Baker said. "The idea is that commitments made in a long-term plan should be met. It is an agreement between a council and its community." So while people are still welcome to suggest major changes or alterations in service levels, it is likely the City Council will delay considering those requests until later in the year, when it begins work on the next (2006-16) long-term community plan.
Spending $3m for a works project to run the QEII sport and leisure centre on methane gas captured at the Burwood landfill is one project that was not forecast in the long-term plan.
The draft plan approved by the City Council includes putting an extra $270,000 to support work around city planning and $390,000 each for the city's six Community Boards (total $2.34 million). The draft also includes $230,000 in unallocated funds for projects during the year.
The Council also decided that $600,000 included in the coming year's budgets to support the development of a flat-water sports facility will be spent to improve the area used by rowing crews around Kerrs Reach on the Avon River.
Mr Baker said the greater-than-expected costs of capital projects and direct operating costs in the next year would be offset by extra earnings from interest and dividends and increased general revenues. He warned that these cost escalations were likely to be a serious issue in future budgets.
The information in the draft Annual Plan does not significantly depart from that specified in the Long-Term Council PLan (LTCCP) for the year commencing 1 July 2005, with the exception of the change in the operation and management of Christchurch's transfer/refuse stations to the Recovered Materials Foundation, with no change in service levels.
How the city council plans to spend your rates dollar
Public meeting and presentation about the draft Annual Plan for 2005-06
Monday, 18 April, 5.30-6.30pm at Our City O-Tautahi (corner Worcester St and Oxford Tce)
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