Christchurch City Council considers its 2007/08 annual plan
Christchurch City Council is working through a range of options to minimise the impact of soaring costs, particularly for roading, as councillors deliberate on their annual plan for 2007/08.
“Last year we put a lot of effort into a 10-year plan with our vision to be world class. Now we have balance our budgets to ensure we can meet our promises,†Christchurch Mayor Garry Moore says.
Council held a seminar on the annual plan today at which staff outlined the cost of meeting the Council’s commitment to the service levels set out in the 2006/16 Long Term Council Community Plan.
Christchurch Mayor Garry Moore said that all the financial issues were laid on the table so that tomorrow Councillors would be well placed to decide what they want to go into the budget and where they want to make further savings.
“We have experienced significant cost pressures in the maintenance area, particularly around streets, where the costs are increasing far greater than our estimates,†Mr Moore says.
“The past five years has seen the cost of materials for roading contracts rise by 10.3 per cent, fuel costs increase by 6.5 per cent and manual labour costs jump 6.1 per cent.â€Â
Council revenue has fallen particularly for parking, but some of this has been offset by excellent financial results from the Council’s leisure centres, for example.
The Council’s 2006/16 Long Term Community Plan released last year projected a rate rise for the 2007/08 of 6.78 per cent, which rose to 7 per cent in July last year following the Council’s decision to retain its service centres for financial transactions.
However when Council revised its 2007/08 budget late last year the rate take required had risen to 13.68 per cent which Mr Moore said was “obviously totally unacceptableâ€Â.
Staff have since identified savings throughout the organisation and after a review this month reduced the rates required to 9.38 per cent.
“We have gone through the organisation with a fine tooth comb and the challenge now is to produce a rate level which is acceptable for our ratepayers. We will work on reducing the rate level over the next few weeks,†Mr Moore says.
The outcome of the current deliberations on the Development Contribution Policy will also impact on rates. The Council decided last year that the cost of the city’s growth should be funded by the development industry and is now working on devising a fair and reasonable formula for assigning costs.
A seminar on the policy will be held tomorrow morning and later in the afternoon an extraordinary Council meeting takes place to make decisions on what should go into the draft annual plan. The draft of the 2007/08 annual plan will be presented to the Council at a meeting on later in March for endorsement prior to public consultation.
“Last year we put a lot of effort into a 10-year plan with our vision to be world class. Now we have balance our budgets to ensure we can meet our promises,†Christchurch Mayor Garry Moore says.
Council held a seminar on the annual plan today at which staff outlined the cost of meeting the Council’s commitment to the service levels set out in the 2006/16 Long Term Council Community Plan.
Christchurch Mayor Garry Moore said that all the financial issues were laid on the table so that tomorrow Councillors would be well placed to decide what they want to go into the budget and where they want to make further savings.
“We have experienced significant cost pressures in the maintenance area, particularly around streets, where the costs are increasing far greater than our estimates,†Mr Moore says.
“The past five years has seen the cost of materials for roading contracts rise by 10.3 per cent, fuel costs increase by 6.5 per cent and manual labour costs jump 6.1 per cent.â€Â
Council revenue has fallen particularly for parking, but some of this has been offset by excellent financial results from the Council’s leisure centres, for example.
The Council’s 2006/16 Long Term Community Plan released last year projected a rate rise for the 2007/08 of 6.78 per cent, which rose to 7 per cent in July last year following the Council’s decision to retain its service centres for financial transactions.
However when Council revised its 2007/08 budget late last year the rate take required had risen to 13.68 per cent which Mr Moore said was “obviously totally unacceptableâ€Â.
Staff have since identified savings throughout the organisation and after a review this month reduced the rates required to 9.38 per cent.
“We have gone through the organisation with a fine tooth comb and the challenge now is to produce a rate level which is acceptable for our ratepayers. We will work on reducing the rate level over the next few weeks,†Mr Moore says.
The outcome of the current deliberations on the Development Contribution Policy will also impact on rates. The Council decided last year that the cost of the city’s growth should be funded by the development industry and is now working on devising a fair and reasonable formula for assigning costs.
A seminar on the policy will be held tomorrow morning and later in the afternoon an extraordinary Council meeting takes place to make decisions on what should go into the draft annual plan. The draft of the 2007/08 annual plan will be presented to the Council at a meeting on later in March for endorsement prior to public consultation.