Long Term Plan 2025-2034 Open for Consultation

Consultation is now open for the Waimate District Council’s Long Term Plan 2025-34.

The consultation document with the theme ‘Mapping Our Future’ outlines Council’s priorities and presents options for how we navigate the challenges we face in the next 9 years.

There cannot be any conversation about the future without acknowledging the present. Sustained inflationary pressures on councils across the country have led to unavoidable rates increases. Incessant legislative changes and increasing costs of maintaining infrastructure represent mounting financial strain on our district.

“Our goal is to effectively manage these costs while ensuring our infrastructure and service delivery remains uncompromised”, says Mayor Craig Rowley.

Council is proposing an overall rates increase of 9.2% for 2025/26, 5.2% for 2026/27, 6.8% for 2027/28, and an average increase of 2.8% per annum for the remaining 6 years. This approach will help Council tackle our challenges head-on while avoiding the cost of servicing debt if we were to delay any rates increases.

This is an average increase; therefore, your rates increase may vary depending on the services provided to your property and its value. To find what your rates increase is likely to be go to the link below.

We welcome you to read the consultation document and give us your feedback. You may want Council to prioritise differently, or agree with our proposal; whatever your thoughts, be sure to make a submission and help map the future of our district.

To make a submission, go to waimatedc.govt.nz/ltp

We invite everyone to come along to one of our community chat sessions if they have questions or just want to join in the conversation.

The following community chat session have been scheduled:

Submissions close 12pm on Monday 5 May 2025.