Hawke’s Bay Regional Council will be asking the community to have their say on its draft Three-Year Plan, opening for consultation on Monday 15 April.

In a Regional Council meeting today, councillors adopted the consultation document of the plan.

The plan proposes an average rates increase of 19.6 percent for 2024-25, 18.1 percent in 2025-26 and nine percent in 2026-27.

Regional Council Chair Hinewai Ormsby says the rate proposals are driven by the need to continue to deliver core functions and critical recovery work programmes in a challenging financial environment.

“We know people are doing it tough out there. We have gone through all the work at the council to see how we can keep the rates increases as low as possible.

“In our Three-Year Plan, we are proposing to temporarily stop and slow some services, and this combined with reducing internal costs, will enable savings of $4.6 million to ratepayers. We are also making our investments work harder to improve returns to ratepayers.”

“The proposed rates increases are set without knowing the outcomes of various reviews now underway and which may in time require new infrastructure and attached costs. We will, of course, consult on these matters in due course.”

The Regional Council’s key work over the next three years includes a nearly $250 million programme to build flood infrastructure to move properties in Category 1 to Category 2 so people can move on with their lives.

At the same time – the Regional Council is bolstering funding for Hawke's Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management (HBCDEM), as together with all the councils in the region, it works on implementing changes based on the independent review of HBCDEM’s response to Cyclone Gabrielle.

The Regional Council will be seeking views on three consultation topics, including rating options for flood infrastructure, temporarily stopping and slowing down of some services, and policy changes.

“Getting the balance right between savings, and delivering community services that the community values is always challenging.

We encourage you – our community – to have your say, come and see councillors at a drop-in session or put in a submission online,” she says.

Consultation will run from Monday 15 April to Wednesday 15 May.

From Monday 15 April, you can read the consultation document, find out about drop-in sessions and make a submission at hbrc.govt.nz, search #haveyoursay.

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