Draft Long Term Plan 2021 - 2031

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The consultation for the Draft Long Term Plan has now finished. The Council will now consider all feedback as well as holding public hearings and deliberations in May. The Long Term Plan will be adopted by Council in June.

The Engagement Period for the draft LTP has now closed.

The draft LTP sets out our priorities for the next 10 years, including what we propose to do, how much it would cost and how we would fund it.

It’s reviewed every three years to make sure it’s relevant and accurate.In the intervening years, an Annual Plan is developed to reflect any changes to the LTP that are required for the year ahead.

We have said previously that the big challenge facing Waimakariri is balancing a growing population – we expect to have around 78,000 (or 13,000 more residents) in ten years’ time and around 95,000 to 100,000 by 2050 – while making sure we have a healthy environment, supportive community, resilient infrastructure, and welcoming conditions for business and new residents.

A key role of the Council is providing good infrastructure (especially our roads and transport infrastructure), community facilities, green spaces, business land and town centres which will meet a growing community’s needs and expectations.

The creation of this LTP takes place following global Covid-19 border lockdowns, at a time of heightened economic uncertainty and with possibly changing central government regulation that could alter how services the Council delivers for you (like reticulated wastewater and drinking water) are owned and funded.

Because of this we have reprioritised our capital programme and focused on critical work that will help recovery and minimise operating costs.

Based on the Council’s preferred option going into this draft LTP, for the next three years we are projecting rates to increase by 3.95 percent in 2021/22, 4.15 percent in 2022/23 and 4.20 percent in 2023/24.

Despite the impacts of Covid-19 and uncertainty associated with the potential government-led Three Waters Review, we anticipate Waimakariri continuing to develop. The rate of new building consents continued to surprise following the lockdown and forecasts show our population continuing to grow in line with pre-Covid projections.

We believe the focus for the coming 10 years should be on economic recovery, climate change and sustainability, and the provision of community facilities and core infrastructure to meet our growing community’s needs.

Because of this the four key issues the Council will need to focus on during the next ten years include:

  1. Ensuring infrastructure and community facilities are in place to meet the needs of our growing community. We are keen to hear your views on whether our proposed investments align with your thinking. In particular:
    • The location and timing of community facilities provided in the north-eastern part of the District - Pegasus and north Woodend (Ravenswood)
    • The timing of the extension to the Trevor Inch Memorial Library in Rangiora and the proposed extension to the Rangiora Civic Precinct.
    • Increasing the number of car parks in Rangiora’s central business area, including provision of a car parking building.
  2. Helping the community in its Covid-19 Economic Recovery
  3. Responding to Climate Change and Sustainability
  4. Assessing the impact of the government-led Water Infrastructure Review.

Full information is available in the full draft consultation document (which you can read in the side tab under documents) that will give you a good insight of the opportunities and issues facing the District and how we propose to respond to them.

Your input into this process is how you can help shape this Plan which manages the Council’s contribution to the great place we live. You can make a formal submission by clicking here.

Each 'Key Theme' below can be shared with your friends and family by clicking the Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Email icons.


The Engagement Period for the draft LTP has now closed.

The draft LTP sets out our priorities for the next 10 years, including what we propose to do, how much it would cost and how we would fund it.

It’s reviewed every three years to make sure it’s relevant and accurate.In the intervening years, an Annual Plan is developed to reflect any changes to the LTP that are required for the year ahead.

We have said previously that the big challenge facing Waimakariri is balancing a growing population – we expect to have around 78,000 (or 13,000 more residents) in ten years’ time and around 95,000 to 100,000 by 2050 – while making sure we have a healthy environment, supportive community, resilient infrastructure, and welcoming conditions for business and new residents.

A key role of the Council is providing good infrastructure (especially our roads and transport infrastructure), community facilities, green spaces, business land and town centres which will meet a growing community’s needs and expectations.

The creation of this LTP takes place following global Covid-19 border lockdowns, at a time of heightened economic uncertainty and with possibly changing central government regulation that could alter how services the Council delivers for you (like reticulated wastewater and drinking water) are owned and funded.

Because of this we have reprioritised our capital programme and focused on critical work that will help recovery and minimise operating costs.

Based on the Council’s preferred option going into this draft LTP, for the next three years we are projecting rates to increase by 3.95 percent in 2021/22, 4.15 percent in 2022/23 and 4.20 percent in 2023/24.

Despite the impacts of Covid-19 and uncertainty associated with the potential government-led Three Waters Review, we anticipate Waimakariri continuing to develop. The rate of new building consents continued to surprise following the lockdown and forecasts show our population continuing to grow in line with pre-Covid projections.

We believe the focus for the coming 10 years should be on economic recovery, climate change and sustainability, and the provision of community facilities and core infrastructure to meet our growing community’s needs.

Because of this the four key issues the Council will need to focus on during the next ten years include:

  1. Ensuring infrastructure and community facilities are in place to meet the needs of our growing community. We are keen to hear your views on whether our proposed investments align with your thinking. In particular:
    • The location and timing of community facilities provided in the north-eastern part of the District - Pegasus and north Woodend (Ravenswood)
    • The timing of the extension to the Trevor Inch Memorial Library in Rangiora and the proposed extension to the Rangiora Civic Precinct.
    • Increasing the number of car parks in Rangiora’s central business area, including provision of a car parking building.
  2. Helping the community in its Covid-19 Economic Recovery
  3. Responding to Climate Change and Sustainability
  4. Assessing the impact of the government-led Water Infrastructure Review.

Full information is available in the full draft consultation document (which you can read in the side tab under documents) that will give you a good insight of the opportunities and issues facing the District and how we propose to respond to them.

Your input into this process is how you can help shape this Plan which manages the Council’s contribution to the great place we live. You can make a formal submission by clicking here.

Each 'Key Theme' below can be shared with your friends and family by clicking the Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Email icons.


The consultation for the Draft Long Term Plan has now finished. The Council will now consider all feedback as well as holding public hearings and deliberations in May. The Long Term Plan will be adopted by Council in June.

Smaller items will be included in the Full Draft Long Term Plan - see the documents tab on the side of this page. 

Otherwise if you ask a question below a member of the team will respond directly to you.

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    Are there plans to widen the culvert on Townsend Road?

    NicolaH asked almost 3 years ago

    Hi Nicola,
    The widening of Townsend Rd, including upgrading the culvert, is a project scheduled in the full LTP to take place within the next three years.

    Thanks for your question!

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    Is there provision for traffic lights or roundabout at the Island Road / Ohoka road intersection in the LTP. Very dangerous trying to cross here at peak times.

    hthr asked almost 3 years ago

    Hi there,
    In the full LTP document we have a project called ‘Ohoka/Island Roads Implementation’ (Under the Significant Capital Projects tab) scheduled to take place between 2021 - 2023. The exact treatment (roundabout or traffic signals) has not been determined just yet However, it is anticipated that we will carry out one or of these treatments.

    If you have a preference, any intel as a regular driver of this intersection, want to comment generally, or seek the upgrade sooner I would encourage you to make a formal submission. This is the easiest way to share your thoughts directly with the decision makers.

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    Is the Wooden Bypass part of this project?

    Bypasspls asked about 3 years ago

    Hi Bypasspls,
    The Woodend Bypass is a Waka Kotahi - NZTA project, however the Council has been advocating for the Bypass to be built alongside other road safety improvements for the area. We’re playing our part and have designated land for this to take place. 

    While this isn't a specific topic of engagement I would still encourage you to make a formal submission if you think this is something the Council should advocate more for. 


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    How is the council going to mitigate the impact of steep rates rises (combined with rising house RVs) on poorer residents? The rates are already extremely expensive compared to Chch rates. People on low incomes cannot absorb such increases.

    Melody asked about 3 years ago

    Hi Melissa,
    The Council have been especially conscious about proposed rates increases.

    Last year due to sudden emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic the Council revised the Draft Annual Plan 2020 – 2021 to keep rate increases as low as possible – from a proposed 4% down to 1.5%. 

    We know we're not out of the woods quite yet.

    As such, for this draft Long Term Plan we have re-prioritised our capital programme and focused on critical work that will help economic recovery and minimise operating costs. For the next three years we are projecting rates to increase by 3.95 percent in 2021/22, 4.15 percent in 2022/23 and 4.20 percent in 2023/24. We believe these are some of the lowest proposed rates increases in the country over this period.

    However, if you think we are on the wrong path please let us know by making a submission through this app. This is the easiest way to share your thoughts directly with the decision makers.