Councillors and staff had a full day workshop on 8th February, to discuss the Draft Annual Plan. This Annual Plan is Year 2 of the LTCCP (Long Term Council Community Plan). At the beginning of the workshop, the councillors and Mayor were faced with an unpalatable truth - the decisions made throughout the first nine months of the ten year plan, many of which incurred expenditure that was not budgeted for, had resulted in a likely rates increase of 17.8%.

Elected members were warned that while we insist that management and staff stick to budgets, working within tight budgets means that the Mayor and councillors also have to be disciplined with their spending.

This month sees the end of the first full Long Term Council Community Plan undertaken by this council and community. The LTCCP sets the direction we will be taking for the next ten years and also includes some longer-term projects that are scheduled to be progressively developed over a much longer period than that. As a council, we still have many more meetings and debates to go before we finalise the Plan and adopt it on 28th June. By law, the Plan must be adopted by 30th, so there is no leeway for anyone who wishes to derail the process.

This has been both a frustrating and a hectic month for me. I took longer to get back on my feet than planned, following my surgery, and was kept very busy reading the submissions on the LTCCP. This year 1740 submissions and priority surveys have been received for the 2006/07 - 2015/16 Draft 10 Year Plan. Issues such as the Recreation Lake, the upgrade of the Esplanade and surrounding parks, Centrepoint Theatre, the standard of the city’s water supply and the rate increase stood out in submissions received. Hearings take place in the week 8th - 12th May and then council gets into the final phases of setting the plan. I expect there are some very long nights coming up!

2005 is almost over and council goes into recess next month. It is getting harder and harder to be publicly supportive of our Mayor. We are still having far too many talkfests which achieve far too few results given the amount of time spent on issues. Any majority vote that goes against the Mayor’s personal opinion just results in the same matter coming back to council again and again. So much time (and talking) has passed, yet we still do not know what the Mayor wishes to achieve in this term. I, for one, would love to know what her plans and aspirations are for the city!

Palmerston North City Council is facilitating the work on defining community outcomes for the new Long Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP). Consultation is being carried out until the end of April.
Palmerston North is your city so you should be involved. PNCC’s plans for the future must be based on a set of community outcomes (pdf file) - things that you think are important for our social, economic, environmental and cultural welfare. These outcomes will belong to you, so it’s important that you have a say in deciding what they will be.

Well, I waited all summer for summer to arrive, just as you probably have. What a changeable season we have had! Just as the weather has gone hot and cold, so has council of late. We started back with a round of workshops and meetings in preparation of the Draft Annual Plan. Now, since the change to local government law with the Local Government Act 2002, the way annual planning goes is this - we have a Long Term Council Community Plan which sets the path for the city for the next ten years, then, in years 2 & 3 we have an Annual Plan. The Annual Plan is essentially a budgeting exercise and brings forward any exceptions and slight changes which need to be done but the direction is all contained in the LTCCP. In Year 4, we review the LTCCP and after consultation we update the community outcomes and set the direction again for the following ten years - the seven remaining years plus three new. Is this confusing?

Sustainability

► Focus on making this a sustainable place for the future where our economic activity, domestic and public life truly occur without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. This may require investment to help people make the change from current practices to ones which are sustainable. For example:

- providing R+D grants or loans to companies developing products or services which decrease resource use;

- requiring new buildings to use passive and active solar design, roof water use and grey water recycling.

Every activity and proposal should have to pass through a sustainability test.

► Depletion of oil stocks - Alert public, discuss & implement changes.

► Alternative transport - Implement bike plan.

► Flood protection of city - City plus region to work closer.

► Establish a lake - Council to be involved in lake development.

► Retention of green space - retain existing green space.

► Green Corridors Project - Continue Green Corridors.

► Access to public open space - protect public access.

► Biodiversity - implement boffa miskell report.

► Sheltered gathering points in the community (wind and rain) - protection, to encourage socialising and meeting points, e.g. The Square.

► Make health of residents a core concern of the city, working in concert with health services and others to foster good health through disease preventative measures such as:

- providing facilities which encourage walking and cycling as well as other physical activities as parts of everyday life;

- ensuring all housing meets adequate standards of insulation;

- support efforts to encourage and assist residents to participate in local community and city groups and events (given the vital role this plays in maintaining good health).

► Inappropriate use of facilities - walkways - conflicts with motorbikes and cycles (where do they go?).

► Continued support for our Library.

► Athletics track - soils for protection sun/rain, particularly for all school children who use it.

► Te Manawa - concentrate on quality and community not cost and revenue generation.

► Feilding to Palmerston North walkway.

► Increase the encouragement provided to the creative minds of our city through provision of public space and opportunity to produce and display/perform. For example, there are so many barren walls around town that would greatly benefit from being painted as murals and why couldn’t every council meeting feature some performing artists.