Things may change for motorhome owners preferring free parking to paying warns the mayor
WAITOMO mayor John Robertson warned his councillors of tough times ahead and urged them to begin thinking of ways to save costs.
“There are significant pressures coming through on our council and on all councils,” he said.
“And again, just inviting us to think about whether there are places that you note we may be able to get some savings as we go into the 10-year plan process,” he said.
He attended the Waikato mayoral forum last week where he said all councils reported on the challenges ahead in terms of potential rate rises due to the cost pressures that councils were facing from inflation and rising interest rates.
“When you look at our interest rate forecast, we were effectively doubling from what we were,” he said.
He talked about a cap on the number of public toilets in the district because, in addition to their capital costs, operating costs were high.
“We have just spent close to $1 million on new toilets on SH3 in Mōkau. We have another set up the road in Awakino, and in between these we have a set in Awakino Heads Road.
“Do we need three within a few kilometres?
“We built a holiday park for caravans in Te Kūiti in 2018, where parking and amenities are charged for. Yet, we also have 140 metres of parking in Rora Street beside a public toilet marked exclusively for motorhomes, where parking and toilets are free.
“It seems a bit inconsistent,” John said.
He suggested the council employ local cleaners and mowers in the outlying villages to reduce travel times and costs.
“Surely, our Te Kūiti centralised system to mow community parks an hour away needs review,” John said.
“Besides, there must be opportunities to partner with schools for some such work. There will be other matters that elected members and members of our community notice, where improvements can be made in the way we deliver services, where waste can be reduced, and where productivity can be increased. It is important that we discuss these.
“If we are to be fair to our ratepayers, get priorities taken care of, and take account of affordability issues, it is important that as we go through the budgeting exercise for the next 10-year plan we challenge current practice and review matters.
“Do we need to continue to do all that we do now, do we need to keep all the assets we own, and are there more efficient ways to do things that will bring down costs? Elected members have a role to play in all three.”
Waitomo District Council already had a backlog of work to complete to fix damage from storm events, John said. And Te Kūiti’s underground pipe networks need upgrading and improved maintenance.
The council still owned land and houses sitting idle that could be sold to help the housing crisis and reduce debt.
Applications for grants over the past several years had been less than what was rated for. The rate for grants could be reduced by $50,000 without the grants made being reduced, he said.
“When you look at what Hamilton City’s going through right now of looking at everything, cutting services, these are some of the things we will need to reflect on properly in the next few months.
“Some of those things are for the executive to think about. There may be things we want to push as elected members, so really that’s the point of it, to get us thinking.
“We are going to start to look at the long-term plan forecasts in December, the executive has been working on it bit by bit.
“What we will find in this exercise… it will come to a point when a figure will come back to council for all those things that we said we wanted. This is the rate rise required.”
It was good to think about paring back things earlier on, rather than at the last minute, John said.
