Getting the Regional Council fit for purpose All budgets, projects - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Getting the Regional Council fit for purpose

• All budgets, projects and activities reviewed
• Funding reprioritised and $500k savings made
• Reviewed approach to compliance, land management, communications & IT
• Re-organisation to improve effectiveness of council operations
• Proposing to increase user charges for consents to 80% recovery, additional

$400k revenue

• Attracting third party funding – central government, corporate, philanthropic
• Actively investing unallocated capital from Ruataniwha Scheme
• Increased Council borrowing to spread costs for intergenerational projects

• ‘Average’ rate for 2018/19

proposed to be $371

• 70% of ratepayers will pay

less than $300 in 2018/19

• The ‘average’ increase for

49,552 ratepayers will be $1 per week or less.

• Half of all ratepayers will pay

60 cents or less per week more.

Civil Defence

• We propose to take full responsibility for collecting

regional Civil Defence rates.

• HBRC provides CDEM for the whole region,

previously done by each individual council, saves $100k p.a.

• Has improved capability and level of service,

consistent with approach nationally

• This is 5.2% of the total proposed rate increase
• Net neutral for ratepayers, so actual net increase

in rates overall is 13.8%

• Funding also included for continuing coastal

hazard work: $3/household in Hastings and Napier

Working with Tāngata Whenua

• HB Regional Planning Committee Act 2015 requires co-

governance of policies and rules for managing our environment

• All regional Treaty Settlements require HBRC to have

formal relationships with settlement entities

• Most HBRC legislation requires particular engagement
• Tangata whenua bring kaitiakitanga perspective & long

view

• 2% of the total rate increase is to fund tangata whenua

participation and dedicated HBRC staff for more effective partnership

Macro- Invertebrate Community Index: Measure of ecological health

• 277,000 hectares of highly erosion

prone land in HB

• Losing over 5 million tonnes of

sediment annually from hill country

• If all planted then a 90% reduction

in sediment

• Targeted treatment of 100,000

hectares forecast to reduce sediment by 50 - 60%

• 1.1 million tonnes of soil each year

from stream bank erosion - this could reduce by 70% once planted vegetation is mature

Land and water

• 9.5% of the proposed rate increase is to more urgently fix issues

in our environment

• Riparian fencing, planting, wetlands and reforestation, subsidised

up to 75%: $30m over 10 years + potential commercial forestry

• Farm Environment Plans, interest free and paid off on rates
• Future Farming Trust to help uptake of good practice

Why now?

• We are required to improve swimmability & health of our rivers
• Shading and planting reduce contaminants, weed and algae
• Climate change expected to bring more intense and frequent

heavy rainfall, accelerated hill country and stream bank erosion

Current level of riverbank erosion = 282,000 t/yr 50% Riparian Fencing = 179,000 t/yr 100% Riparian Fencing = 75,000 t/yr

Biodiversity

• Proposal to set up and fund HB Biodiversity Foundation

to ‘crowd in’ other funders: corporate, philanthropic

• 72% of NZ native freshwater fish species are

‘threatened’ or ‘at risk’

• Rats, stoats, and possums kill about 25 million native

birds nationwide every year, many threatened.

Biosecurity

• Possum control has been very successful, we plan to extend this

programme to tackle goats, stoats, ferrets, feral cats and hedgehogs

• Expand Cape to City to wider region

Setting environmental limits… and enforcing them

Regulation: Science, Planning, Consents, Compliance

• HBRC required to set water quality and quantity limits for all waterbodies

and have plans underway to improve degraded ones by 2025

• Forestry to be regulated – establishment and harvest - from May 2018
• Need to monitor and enforce new rules and more complex consents
• More regulation relies on increased science monitoring and reporting
• 1,100 farm environment plans required in Tukituki catchment by 31 May
• Heretaunga TANK Plan Change will contain extensive new policies and

rules for all four catchments, aim to notify later this year

Sustainable Homes

• Extend the successful HeatSmart programme to make properties more

sustainable and resilient

• No direct cost to ratepayers, fully cost recovered, but ‘leverages’ the HBRC’s

ability to borrow for community benefit, especially where there are upfront affordability issues.

• Solar hot water heating
• PhotoVoltaic cells
• Domestic water storage
• Septic tank replacement

Tuki Tuki Catchment Plan (Plan Change 6)

• Farm Environment and Phosphorus/Sediment Management Plans

required for accessing fencing/planting subsidies

• Mandatory stock exclusion/fencing required under Tuki Tuki Plan
• Tuki Tuki first catchment for mandatory FEMPs and stock exclusion

so at front of queue, and CHB a major recipient of HBRC funds

• $5 million available for feasibility studies of water storage and

augmentation, Ruataniwha zone a priority, eg. aquifer recharge, deep groundwater or smaller storage for low flow augmentation

• Science package includes new Ruataniwha Groundwater Model and

SkyTEM survey

• Sustainable Homes initiative will assist small communities such as

Tikokino and Ongaonga with septic tank replacement and rain tanks

• Farmer-led Future Farming Trust will assist with HB specific

knowledge sharing and research

Hawke’s Bay Tourism

• Stepping back the funding of HB Tourism is a 1.6%

rates reduction to help us focus on environmental priorities.

• HB Tourism has been very successful and industry

is growing well, is it time for the primary beneficiaries – the industry – to fund a greater share?

Local Government Funding Agency

• Joining this scheme has no upward impact on rates
• r debt but gives us access to lower interest rates

for borrowing

• Very low risk, 54 other councils in scheme,

common overseas model

Community meetings

Tell us what you think!

• Online
• In person – at community events
• In writing
• Facebook posts

Send us your feedback by Monday 23 April 2018