Plan sets course for the future

Rodney has a population of 98,000 and this is expected to increase to 120,000 by 2019.

As many of you will be aware, the Rodney District Council’s chief executive Rodger Kerr-Newell has been seconded to the Auckland Transition Agency to drive the reorganisation of the Auckland councils into a supercity.

In his absence, I am acting chief executive.

Through this column my fellow directors and I will be keeping you up to date on what’s going on at the council.

The past few weeks have been a busy time for the council.

As you may have read in the paper, the council adopted its long-term council community plan at a meeting last June 29.

The plan sets out our intentions for the next 10 years – what projects we plan to do, how much these will cost and how these will be funded.

Putting together a list of projects for the many towns in our district and preparing a budget for the next 10 years has been a complex task.

Consultation on the plan took place in April and we received 844 submissions.

It was pleasing to see that so many people took the opportunity to comment on proposals.

The average rates increase for next year is 4.9 percent – down from the 5.2 percent increase proposed in the draft document.

Despite the uncertainty about whether Rodney will become part of the supercity or stand on its own as a unitary council, we expect this long-term plan will continue to be referred to for the next three years.

It’s great that so many people in our community have had input into shaping this key document.

Our focus at the council will now be on progressing the projects in the plan and continuing to make a positive difference to people in Rodney.

- © Fairfax NZ News