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Annual Plan: ‘responsible and fair’ 
The Christchurch City Council budget for 2000- 01 was adopted last month (July), setting the Council's spending for the next year. A total of $128.72 million will be spent on day to day services and $114.3M on capital spending. The main service areas are roads, water, sewerage, parks, leisure and libraries, which altogether account for 69.8 per cent of spending. The Annual Plan was adopted following consideration by the Council to 284 written submissions, 90 oral submissions (heard over four days), a City Scene questionnaire returned by 1484 residents, the Annual Citizens' Survey and a considerable amount of new information. The chairman of the Strategy and Resources Annual Plan Working Party, Councillor David Close, described the final plan as “responsible, fair and more responsive” than the draft which had been recommended in March. In a report to the Council he said the working party had endeavoured to keep in mind all views as it responded to numerous requests for additional spending. “All the requests had merit, but many were declined because the working party considered that, in relation to the Council’s policy objectives, they did not have sufficient priority to justify additional spending by ratepayers this year.” (Some have been recommended for reconsideration in future years.) Larger increases in spending are to fund initiatives which the Council has approved recently, such as provision of an interim capital sum of $2M for the Central City Board and a state- of- the- art “real time” information system in the new Bus Exchange. Smaller increases are in response to requests for better maintenance in the central city, an annual grant to Carols by Candlelight, new toilets on a key tourist route and increased support for a number of community groups. Some increases in expenditure are inescapable. For example, the Council has to accommodate a 40% increase in the price of bitumen. The Citizens’ Survey and City Scene questionnaire indicate that the Council has majority support for most of its spending allocations and in some cases, such as job creation, residents say the Council is not spending enough. The Council set the overall rate increase at 2.35 per cent, which was lower than the recommended increase in March of 2.48%. Compared with the draft, the residential increase has edged up and the commercial increase, down — because some of the additional expenditure relates more to the residential sector. Capital expenditure is forecast to be higher over the new few years because of the incorporation of a $43M loan to Jade Stadium Ltd, to complete redevelopment of the stadium, but the Council’s projected long- term debt has been reduced. Future rate increases are projected to be about the rate of inflation, except in the 2003- 05 period, when they are projected to be over 5% because of major spending on the new art gallery and wastewater treatment plant, and increased operating costs of a new regional landfill. “While this may not be unreasonable in view of the much higher standard of service to be provided, I am sure the Council will wish to mitigate the increases,” Cr Close said in the Working Party report. “This should not be difficult to achieve if, as is likely, the Council chooses to use a proportion of the proceeds from Orion’s sale of the North Island gas networks to reduce debt.” pic: The Annual Plan includes a grant to Carols By Candlelight. |
