Disorganisation from the new government has seen the Waikato District Council staff recommending that Council give up on this year’s Long Term Plan - their three-yearly review of how they spend their rates.
Council Chief Executive Gavin Ion has politely described the situation as being cvuased by “significant policy changes” driven by central government, coupled with a lack of clarity around funding and affordability. Others are describing it is the result of a new government that promised to get rid of Labours 3-Waters plan but then forgot to come up with a plan B.
Local government minister Simeon Brown gave councils the option of skipping some of their consultation process but it looks like our council would rather give the government time to come up with a new plan so they can do the process properly next year.
“Government’s water infrastructure policy and affordability implications locally need to be resolved. We also need a better understanding of the level of Waka Kotahi subsidies that will be secured for the district's roading programme which is about a third of our budget, with 51 percent of our transportation funding coming from central government,” he explains” said Gavin Ion before emphasising that none of Council’s work to date on the LTP goes to waste and that they are simply pausing the work for now.
In local sport, Raglan had a couple of wins at the last of the Billabong Grom surfing events in Piha on the weekend. Copal Mateja achieved his first victory in the U14 boys competition on Saturday while Alani Morse only managed a second place in the U16 girls final she did enough to secure the U16 girls series title for 2024.
And another young local surfer also got a podium finish with Indica Corcoran third in the U16 boys, his best results of the season.
In local junior sport, despite the brilliant weather outside it’s time to think about winter sport with the Raglan Football club announcing that they’ve opened registrations for the winter season. Parents have until March 23rd to get along to raglanfootball.nz to get the kids signed up.