This week Stratford District Council (SDC) adopted its final Long Term Plan 2024-34 and supporting documents after a robust audit review, and set the rates for the 2024/25 year. The final average rate increase for 2024/25 is 15.37% with an average rate increase of 4.3% for the remaining 9 years of the LTP.

The adoption of the LTP follows 12 months of conversations with the community, elected member workshops, line by line budget reviewing, a month of consultation, hearing and deliberations and more recently the final audit.

District Mayor Neil Volzke says this is the single most important document elected members are involved in, and one that demands a lot of staff time. “Looking out to the next 10 years and focusing on what needs to be done in the first 3, before we go through this process again, is a meaty piece of work. It involves many decisions, big and small, lots of debate and balancing community expectations against what’s realistic within the resources available to us.”

“We’ve been up front about the rise in rates and reason behind it throughout this process, and like other councils across New Zealand, we’ve discussed what we’d have to lose to keep rates low.”

“In the feedback process it was clear that our community doesn’t want to see Stratford go backwards. So, we’ve done our best to land in a position that means we can maintain service levels while focusing on the betterment of our district for future generations.”

The full LTP document will be online in the next couple of weeks, and approved capital projects as part of the LTP will be shared on YourSay.Stratford.govt.nz for community members to follow progress updates.

SDC encourages residents to register on YourSay.Stratford.govt.nz to stay in the loop and be part of community engagement opportunities going forward.

Key projects in years 1 to 3:

• Demolition of the old TSB Pool Complex (2024/25)
• Upgrades to Prospero Place (2024-2026)
• Earthquake strengthening of TET Multi-Sports Stadium (2026/2027)
• Replacement of the old raw water delivery line to the Stratford water treatment plant (2024-2026)

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