Council Long Term Plans - what are they and why do they matter?

 

LONG TERM PLAN CONSULTATIONS

By Chrys Horn

Both Environment Canterbury (ECan) and Christchurch City Council have released their long-term plans for comment by ratepayers. 

What is a long-term plan?  

Long-term plans are legally required documents that set the budget and the work plan of each council for the next ten years.  Long term plans are revised every three years so expenditure over the next three years is probably the most critical part of the plan, while the rest of the plan gives an indication of the direction the Council expects to be going.  

 Once a long term plan is in place, the council uses it as the basis for developing a more detailed annual plan each year.  Your rates bill is calculated from that.  In general, most (85-90%) of the rates bill that you receive each year (or pay rent on, so your landlord pays them) comes from Christchurch City Council. Between 10 and 15% of the bill comes from Environment Canterbury.

You can access the plans online, the links to the consultation forms and documents are below this article.  You can look at the summaries of both council’s plans of delve into the full plan in more detail.  

City Council long term plan

ECan long term Plan

 

Rates Tool

This year, both councils have a great ‘rates tool’ which you can use to visually get an idea of how our rates are used.  The picture below shows the overall budget of the CCC and how the money and projects are allocated between 5 main areas

 

Each of the bubbles in the picture is a project and the size of the bubble indicates the size of the spending on the project.  As you can see, the CCC’s biggest spend over the next ten years is going to be on our water and waste infrastructure. 

You can click on each bubble and get the details of each project.  You can click on each area and look at how it is divided up.  It’s a great tool and well worth playing with.   If you don’t have your own computer get into the library and ask a librarian to help you find it! 

Making a Submission

It is a good idea to submit on what you like and want to see, as well as on what you don’t like.  If others don’t like something that you do and you haven’t mentioned it, then the Council might decide that nobody likes it and cut it back or get rid of it altogether.  Remember too that submissions do not need to be long.

Submissions are usually written – you can either write a letter or you can fill in the online form.  It is also possible to send in a video saying what you want to say.

Below are links to a number of Public Consultations.

Hard copies and summary brochures are available at Te Hāpua.

 

For more on the ECan Plan click here