Draft Long Term Plan 2021 - 2031

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.

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