The Christchurch City Council’s Long-Term Plan, and what it could mean for you
New Regent Street, Christchurch. Source: Flickr.
The Christchurch City Council is wrapping up deliberations over its Long-Term Plan (LTP) 2024/34, which Riccarton Ward City Councillor Tyla Harrison-Hunt says is the “best way” for the area to move forward.
Revisited every three years, the plan sets the proposed rates, projects, and services the Council wants to offer over the next ten years.
As the plan currently stands, the Riccarton Ward has the third-lowest budget, despite being the second-busiest hub in the city, with $0 allocated for parks, community services, and transport, said Harrison-Hunt.
“A lot of our students live in Upper Riccarton and Sockburn, not just UC but also Lincoln, and the things they’re after are appropriate waste management, safe cycleways, safe places to walk. It’s real simple stuff, it just hasn’t been done.”
Harrison-Hunt’s goals for the LTP deliberations include making tertiary students’ council pool and gym fees the same as high school students’, a waste management initiative at the University for recycling unwanted or used furniture this year, increased waste management and litter collection in the area for 2025, and creating a council app used to access rates, events, consultations, maps, bus routes, cycleways, and more.
“I think around the Ilam catchment particularly, there’s a lot of issues that need solutions and this is the best way to do it.”
The draft plan currently indicates overall provisional rates increase of 14% for 2024/25, according to Newsline.
“Historically, the focus [of the plan] has been on ratepayers, but little do people know that renters actually help those ratepayers offset their rates through their rents, so it’s actually really important that students have a voice and know that they’re valued at the table,” Harrison-Hunt said.
A summary of the City Council’s key proposals for the plan included a 10-year budget of $16.4 billion, with $4.8 billion planned to be spent in the next three years.
The Council proposed to spend $226 million on improving existing roads, cycleways, and footpaths in the first three years of the Draft LTP, and a $486 million investment of capital spend into renewing and upgrading drinking water, stormwater, wastewater, and flood protection.
$286 million would be committed to complete Te Kaha Stadium over 2025-2027, and $7.4 billion to council services such as waste collection and libraries.
The council says it would make savings of $6.1 million in 2024/25, with a planned $41 million in operational savings and additional revenue over the entire 10-year period.
According to Newsline, the plan will be formally adopted on March 11. The draft will go out for public feedback from March 13 to April 17.