Media Release
19 December 2008

Council begins considering 10-year plan

Manukau city councillors have begun considering the priorities for its Long Term Council Community Plan 2009–19 (10-year plan).

Policy and Activities Committee chair Colleen Brown says that councillors will be making their recommendations to the community in February and March based on six key priorities: Community safety, sustainability, affordability, city investment and infrastructure, urban form and public transport.

“We recognise that our ratepayers have limits to what they can afford to fund. We also must allow for the growth that our city will have to accommodate in the long term. It is a delicate balancing act, particularly in the uncertain economic climate we are now experiencing.

“The recession we are now in is having a detrimental effect on the council’s income and we are taking measures to reduce spending this financial year,” Cr Brown says.

“However in preparing the 10 year plan we are considering various scenarios as to when the economy will recover. At the moment we are working on the assumption that the need to develop infrastructure and community facilities, required as a result of growth in the city, will slow down.

“We have already deferred some projects that had been budgeted for in this financial year to help offset the drop in revenue. There will also be some major projects in our capital programme that will be pushed out further in the 10-year plan and while this is a 10-year plan, we are also looking beyond this horizon towards 15 and 20 years and some projects may well go into these timeframes.”

The Policy and Activities Committee will meet at the beginning of February to decide what is to go into the draft plan. The draft will then be approved for adoption before audit on 5 March, and approved for consultation on 31 March.

People can provide feedback on the issues around the draft plan, and register for updates, on www.tellusyourmanukau.govt.nz.

ENDS

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