What should Council prioritise?

Following on from the LTP community workshops held in late November, we have some additional tools available for Hastings district residents to have their say on what they think Council should be spending its budgets on.

Cyclone Gabrielle has imposed huge costs on the district, including $131m in roading and bridge repairs ($800m in total with Government funding the rest). That is on top of the essential services that we all rely on every day: waste, water and roads.

To stop rates skyrocketing we want to know what, outside of those essential services, Council could do less of (or stop) doing, to keep costs down. Input from residents is one element of information Council will consider as it makes decisions among others, including regulatory requirements, social and cultural wellbeing, the environment, and economic success.

Core services of all councils include managing roads, three waters and waste collection. In Hastings we can add the cost of cyclone recovery, particularly to roads over and above normal road and footpath maintenance.

As Hastings District Council prepares a ten-year Long-Term Plan, the costs of these essentials and things like escalating insurance and materials costs, mean that to keep rates from skyrocketing choices around facilities and services outside of the core framework need to be considered.

Feedback tools

To have your say on what you think Council should be spending its budget on (outside of waste, water and roads), click on the feedback tools below.