Kaipara District Council has adopted its Annual Report for the 2023/2024 year. The report was unanimously adopted by elected members in the 27 November meeting.

The Annual Report is an independently audited document that Council produces to report on progress in the previous financial year and measure its performance. The Annual Report for 2023/2024 reports against the third year of the Long Term Plan 2021/2031.

Kaipara District Council Mayor Craig Jepson acknowledged that in spite of challenges during this time there were many achievements to be proud of.

“It’s clear that the weather events of 2023 have had a long tail and continue to impact our work programmes and budgets. We achieved a significant amount of recovery repair in this period and will complete the remainder across the next two years.”

This financial period also saw the majority of the groundwork laid for the Long Term Plan for 2024–2027. As part of this, the repeal of Three Waters legislation meant staff completed additional work at pace to include waters services and activities back into budgets and plans already near completion.

Council completed $32 million of capital works in the 2023/2024 year. A major part of this spend – $20.3 million – was invested in the roading network.

A number of externally funded flood resilience and recovery projects, mainly around Dargaville, have progressed, and planning started for much needed upgrades and improvements for Pouto Point carpark, Rangiora Road reserve development, and the Baylys Beach boardwalk (all supported by the Tourism Infrastructure Fund).

Work continued building the shared path network in Mangawhai, connecting the Village to the Heads. In June, the new Pouto wharf opened to the public, the final Kaipara Wharves project, activating a water transport network in Kaipara harbour.

Progress was also made on the District Plan Review, multiple private plan changes were processed, funding distributed back to communities through the grants and contestable funds, and core services continued to be delivered.

External debt was up by $10 million at 30 June 2024, however this was offset by $9.8 million in term deposits making the net debt consistent with previous years. The debt was repaid by the term deposit in October 2024.

Council finished the year with operating surplus of $16.6 million against a budgeted surplus of $32.8 million, with revenue largely on track with budget.

There was an increase in performance across the nine council activities measured each year. This was seven more than last year with a total of 54 out of the 73 measures achieved.

The full Annual Report is available to view now on the Kaipara District Council website. An Annual Report summary will also be available within one month.

View the council meeting discussion and decision on the Kaipara District Council YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/live/7vRqxDHQuMM

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