Annual Plan 2017-18 adopted

Council adopted the Annual Plan for the 2017-18 financial year at the Council meeting of 11 May. The final average rates revenue increase is 3.9%. Individual rates increase will fluctuate.

Elected Members and the community have brought great initiatives to the Council table. To keep our rates increase modest some of these initiatives will feed into the development of the 2018-28 Long Term Plan rather than be included in the recently adopted 2017-18 Annual Plan.

"Council is focussing on some key areas over the coming year," said Ben Smit, Council's Deputy Chief Executive. "These include increased attention to general maintenance in our towns, especially our CBD areas, improved community engagement, development of town concept plans and residential growth planning."

Most of Council's Fees and Charges have increased by 3% inflation as per our previous Long Term Plan. However we have kept several fees at the current rate (ie, no increase). These include most of the fees at the libraries, South Waikato Sport and Events Centre and the pools as we recognise that keeping fees as low as possible for our leisure facilities is important. We have also included some new fees in the building control area, animal control service and council facilities.

"What is exciting for our community is that there is more engagement and consultation opportunities coming in the coming months so that we can further refine ideas and initiatives for the LTP," continued Mr Smit. "It is key to remember that our LTP further engagement will be happening much earlier in the process than normal."

The full adopted Annual Plan and the Fees and Charges for the 2017-18 year are available on our website here.

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