Council to defer 10year Long Term Plan
The Gore District Council has decided to defer its 2024-34 Long Term Plan and produce an “enhanced” 2024-25 plan instead.
This has followed the Government last month giving local authorities the flexibility to defer their long-term plans due to uncertainty around the future of three waters service delivery.
Gore District mayor Ben Bell, pictured, said the Government’s decision vindicated the council’s move to lobby the Minister for Local Government when other local authorities questioned the value of deferring their long-term plans.
“For me it shows that central Government and the minister value localism, and are listening to smaller councils, such as Gore,” Bell said.
As a result of the council decision, there would be a 2024-25 annual plan consultation document and the council would produce a nine-year-plan next year. This plan would have to be adopted by June 30, 2025.
There would be two years between the next two long-term plans, to bring the three-yearly planning cycle back into line.
The council interim chief executive Stephen Parry said the reasons for opting out of a long-term plan far outweighed any perceived disadvantages.
“In twelve months there will be more certainty around 3 Waters reform and our role in any new structural model,” he said in a report to the council.
The council was not immune to the pressures driving up rates elsewhere and would be better positioned if it focused on just the next 12 months, Parry said.
The impending arrival of a new chief executive was also among the reasons to delay the Long Term Plan.