Interest in Draft LTCCP invited

MANAWATU District Council is encouraging its residents to get involved in the preparation of the Draft Long Term Council Community Plan 2009-19 that highlights council’s plans for the next decade. Preliminary work on the LTCCP has been underway for the past 18 months.

Community and Strategic Development Officer, Tracey Hunt, said council felt a key step in building the LTCCP was creating the right debate on issues that were likely to be most critical to the community in the next 10 years.

“How these issues are addressed will be the focus of the Draft LTCCP,” she said, “and though formal consultation does not begin until April, council is keen to preview key issues with the community.”

The first four key issues identified by council are:

Community Engagement

Community engagement is vitally important to developing the LTCCP with hundreds of people being involved through making submissions, answering surveys, attending meetings and giving feedback. Council is always grateful for ideas, submissions and presentations from the community and many changes are made to the draft as a result of this consultation.

Planning for Tomorrow, Today

The planning issue centres on council achieving a balance between the provision of affordable services today while making arrangements for services required by the communities of tomorrow. As a result, council has distinguished between “Must Have” and “Nice to Have” projects and invites residents to consider them in order of preference.

Determination of Affordable Levels of Service

Much discussion has centred on levels of service, such as weekly rubbish and recycling collections, and council’s wish to provide a range of quality projects and services that meet community expectations and are affordable. The challenge is to provide for these services within the bounds of the community’s willingness and ability to pay for them.

Services Recommended for Review

The 2008 community consultation showed a general satisfaction with services provided by council, though some areas of concern involving footpaths, roading, public toilets and animal control have been recommended for review. Increased levels of service are usually associated with increased costs and the community will be asked to make a choice on these.

Residents are invited to forward comments to the council.