Global pressures made operating conditions tough, but it didn’t stop the New Plymouth District Council (NPDC) delivering for its residents over the last financial year (1 July 2021 – 30 June 2022).

NPDC achieved 79% of its non-financial performance targets for this period, which include things like visitor numbers at some to our facilities, customer response and consent processing times and customer satisfaction.

The results in the draft Annual Report 2021/2022 will be discussed at the final Council meeting for this term on Tuesday (27 September).

Among the achievements were:

• 63,724 visitors to the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery – ahead of a target of the 60,000
• An average of 9,588 people visited Puke Ariki and community libraries each week – ahead a target of 5,000.

Also, during this period:

• 15,000 people attended our first ever TSB Festival of Lights Winter Pop-up event held in the city centre
• We adopted the Ngāmotu New Plymouth City Centre Strategy, setting the strategic direction for New Plymouth’s city centre over the next 30 years.
• Purchased 41 hectares of land to build a Wastewater Treatment Plant for Urenui and Onaero and stop pollution from septic tanks
• Completed a $10m project in Inglewood to replace the town’s water pipes.

There was a general rates deficit of $4.3 million due to Covid with venue closures, reduced revenue from things such as parking fees and infringements and, subsidy and grant revenue being behind budget, contributing to that deficit.

“It’s been a pretty challenging year with disruptions due to Covid, inflation, global supply change issues and contractor shortages, so it is heartening to see we continued to deliver great services to our residents with nearly 80% of performance targets being reached and still delivering on some big pieces of work. A big thank you to all our team for their excellent work,” says interim Chief Executive Miriam Taris.

She also acknowledged the building team which delivered a 98.8% performance rating, putting it 11th place out of 81 registered Building Consent Authorities in New Zealand.

“That’s a great result in an area which has been particularly busy with more than 3000 building consent applications alone while also facing staffing issues because of the competitive labour market,” says Taris.

While COVID restrictions were challenging, it provided the opportunity to do things a little differently such as enhanced online activities offered by Puke Ariki Museum and Govett-Brewster Art Gallery.

The new Councillors will adopt the final 2021/2022 Annual Report later than usual this year, as due to Covid staffing issues at the Office of the Auditor General the deadline has been extended to 31 December.

For more information, read the full agenda paper here:

Fast Facts

• Managing $3.5 billion worth of assets with an operating budget of around $185m
• We supply a combined 33.2 million litres of water per day to just over 30,000 from facilities at New Plymouth, Inglewood, Ōakura and Ōkato
• 5,300 tonnes of recyclable materials, 1,500 tonnes of food scraps and 7,800 tonnes of landfill waste collected each year
• We service 1,285 kilometres of roads, 521 kilometres of footpaths, 166 bridges and culverts and more 8,000 streetlights
• 86% of residents satisfied with the quality and safety of the district’s cycle network
• We are investing $248 million over 10 years to fix the plumbing; $38 million to Green our Place and $40 million to Pay it Forward for our kids
• NPDC has an AA+ credit rating from independent global agency Standard and Poors
• The financial information in the final Annual Report 2021/2022 will consist of the Parent entity (NPDC and two forestry join ventures) and the Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) (Papa Rererangi i Puketapu Limited, New Plymouth PIF Guardians Limited, Venture Taranaki Trust and Tasmanian Land Company).

© Scoop Media