Council and community to work on Porirua City’s Long-term Plan

Making it easy for residents and businesses to have their say on Porirua’s Long-term Plan was discussed at this morning’s City Direction Committee meeting.

Our approach is to hear the voices of our communities to ensure their views help shape our city’s Long-term Plan.

“Right now we’re consulting on the city’s Rating Policy and Finance and Revenue Policy which will be applied to the Long-term Plan – the budget for our city over the next 20 years,”says Committee Chair ‘Ana Coffey.

These policies balance how rates are allocated to ensure they’re fair among our different customers. The last day for submissions is 16 November 2017.

“We’re using fresh ways to raise awareness of the Long-term Plan by creating more video and using online and social media to reach more of our young and diverse community,” Clr Coffey says.

“Yesterday we released the first of a series of videos called “Working for our city”. This shows all the awesome things we’re able to do together with you and we hope it will help you start thinking about the services you value. Between now and Christmas we’ll focus on other things and we’ll be asking if you want changes to these services to help cut costs. You can view that video here https://youtu.be/yySOjEWeEjw.”

Almost 40% of Porirua City residents are under the age of 25, with 30% aged between 25 and 50 and 30% aged over 50, while 23% of residents were born overseas.

Mayor Mike Tana says the Council is looking forward to talking with as many people as possible.

“In the New Year we’ll bring you more detail about our proposed work plan and what it will cost. You’ve told us to keep a rein on costs and we’re already working with Council Chief Executive Wendy Walker and her team to see how we can do that.

“Then in March-April we’ll be out and about during our formal consultation period listening to your views so we can make the right decisions for our Long-term Plan 2018-38.

“We have a diverse community so we need to hear from you all. We want to work with you to help Porirua grow and do well. But we also know you want us to live within our means. That’s our challenge!

“So tell us your thoughts! We want to make the best decisions for our home, Porirua. Let’s work together to get it right for our city.”

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