Council looks to delay Annual Plan adoption

Western Bay of Plenty District Council is considering delaying the adoption of its Annual Plan 2023/24.

Council’s Annual Plan Committee on Wednesday 14 June will consider moving the adoption until Wednesday 30 August. While councils across Aotearoa New Zealand traditionally adopt an Annual Plan by 30 June each year, Council can delay this process and still comply with the statutory timeframes.

Council CEO John Holyoake says the delay will allow time for further consultation on its financial contributions and for the property revaluation process to be completed.

“It is important the time is taken now on these two matters to ensure a true and accurate Annual Plan,” says John.

Financial contributions

Since consulting on the draft financial contribution charges (financial year 2024), as part of the Annual Plan Process in March-April, we have further reviewed our charging models. Based on that review, including feedback from some developers, we have determined that the financial contribution charges need to be amended.

“Council wants to ensure that the community is fully informed of the changes arising from the review and therefore is proposing to undertake further consultation on those prior to deciding whether to adopt the changes.

“We are committed to taking the time to do it now and do it right, allowing our residents and developers time to consider and provide feedback on these changes,” explains John.

To enable this further consultation, Council’s Annual Plan Committee will next week look to adopt the updated financial contributions proposal in order to consult further on these proposed amendments.

Property Revaluations

At the same time, the property revaluation process requires more time for completion. This is mainly due to resourcing capacity in the valuation sector.

Western Bay must keep capital and land values of all properties in the District updated so that rates can be accurately and fairly calculated. Every council in New Zealand is required to carry out a revaluation at least every three years under the Ratings Valuations Act 1998 – with Council’s last undertaken in 2020.

The 2023 valuation process is being completed by independent valuation company Quotable Value (QV). The valuation process is audited by the Valuer-General.

“Providing more time will allow QV to complete this work, release the valuations to our community and receive any objections.

“When we look at the combined impact of these two issues on our Annual Plan process it makes sense that we’d consider this delay,” says John.

The Wednesday 14 June Committee meeting will livestreamed via our YouTube channel from 9:30am.