Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan says the Government needs a bit of a “pat on the back” for its decision to offer all councils around the country the chance to defer its long term plans.

With Three Waters out and a third of the CODC’s budget allocated to that, the financial team needed time to adjust to the new figures.

Listen to the interview on this mornings podcast The Outlet - The voice of Central - click the banner below

Mayor Cadogan warned back in January that rates could head above 20 per cent this year, and confirmed again yesterday in The Outlet podcast (enter link) that council was in survival mode “we have to just do business as usual. There isn’t room in the budget for great, big sparkly projects.”

So, the council will get back on track to where it was in 2017, still concentrating on drinking water standards and a new ‘direction’ stopping the discharge of treated and untreated wastewater into rivers and streams. But, that all costs significant money.

The council will defer adopting the 2024-34 Long-term Plan by 12 months and has opted to prepare an Annual Plan for 2024-25.

This option was recommended to council because it gave staff the ability to build in yet to be determined costs such as water supply, sewerage and stormwater. 

It also meant being able to incorporate New Zealand Land Transport Authority (NZTA) funding for roading projects, also unknown at this stage, into the LTP next year.

The council was conscious of the fact that the regular striking of rates and invoicing cycle would remain the same as previous years under this option too.

Consultation on the Annual Plan will begin at the end of April and run for one month. The Annual Plan will be adopted by the end of June.