Taupō District Council has today adopted its annual report for the 2020-21 year, highlighting the resilience of the district over the past 12 months in the face of a world-wide pandemic. Mayor David Trewavas said council had delivered impressively across its services, facilities and key projects in what have been very challenging times.

“The resilience of our community is a real testament to the ‘can do’ nature of the people who make up our wonderful district,” he said.

“As a council, we committed to a zero per cent rates increase to lift the burden on individuals and businesses in the wake of the pandemic.

“While that meant reprioritising some of our major projects to help our community, we knew it was something we needed to do, and I think council staff can be very proud of what they achieved in such challenging times.”

Council chief executive Gareth Green said while it had been a year like no other, there were still many highlights across the district

“We secured significant government funding to support our recovery, including $20.6 million for the Taupō Town Centre Transformation project. We are already seeing the benefits of this, with the creation of many new local jobs for our people,” he said.

Highlights of the year revealed in the report include:

• Completing the Great Lake Pathway, creating a more user-friendly experience of the natural beauty for locals and visitors
• Setting out an ambitious long-term plan to invest in core infrastructure, safe drinking water, addressing climate change and seeking better housing outcomes
• Approving a record number of building consents
• Seventy-nine percent of the community surveyed reporting positive quality of life
• Moving towards completing the Mangakino Sports Hub
• Relining the sewers in Mangakino and Taupō industrial areas
• Connecting the Five Mile Bay community to the Taupō water supply
• Making great strides in the $6.6 million Turangi Street Revitalisation project to renew kerbs and channels
• Helping to meet treaty obligations through creating a Maori Ward for the district
• Creating a Covid community recovery plan
• Gaining more than $20m in COVID relief funding to transform the town centre
• Seventy-six per cent of capital works on schedule as of April 2021
• Zero rates increase for ratepayers

A copy of the annual report, adopted by council at its meeting today, will be available on our website later this week.

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