Council happy with draft Annual Plan engagement levels

Ruapehu Mayor Don Cameron has said that Council was very happy with the level of community engagement over the proposals for this year’s Annual Plan (2017-18).

“In the end Council received 154 formal submissions in addition to feedback from the public meetings and other sources such as social media,” said Mayor Cameron.

“About half the formal submissions were received via Council’s on-line submission form on our website with almost as many via the post and a handful via email.”

“This year Council was seeking public feedback on four exceptions that are materially different to what was indicated in the last Long Term Plan (LTP 2015-25).”

“These were to maintain economic development funding, maintain investment in Visit Ruapehu, and provide seed funding for new tourism infrastructure, and funding for maintaining township revitalisation momentum.”

Mayor Cameron noted that early analysis indicated that that although a range of views were expressed the majority of the submissions were generally positive in support of resources being made available to help maintain Ruapehu’s current momentum.

“Interestingly, despite the enthusiastic response shown by Ruapehu communities to the revitalisation discussions Council held with townships around the district there was some negative feedback on the proposal to put aside $500,000 to allow for detailed planning and initial project work to get underway.”

“When Council looked into this we found that in some cases people had mistakenly thought that the $500,000 was all for Taumarunui.”

“This isn’t the case at all,” he said.

“The $500,000, if approved by Council, will be available for all Ruapehu township revitalisation projects.”

“At this stage, there is no itemized plan for the use of this money only that this amount be earmarked to progress township revitalisation projects.”

“Council is committed to working with any Ruapehu township on revitalisation.”

“Mayor Cameron said that a copy of all the submissions can now be viewed on Council’s websitewww.ruapehudc.govt.nz ”

“Hearings for people who want to speak in support of their submission are in Taumarunui on Wednesday 19 April (Council Chamber – 10.00am) and in Ohakune (Council Chamber – 10.00am) and Raetihi (Council Chamber – 1.00pm) on Thursday 20 April.”

“The public are welcome to attend.”

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