Cr Bill Faulkner Faulkners Corner www.sunlive.co.nz

Council took a financial chainsaw to the 2012-2022 Three/Ten Year Plan this week.

I've added in the three-year bit because most people recognise that it's only practical to detail plan three years of forward works due to changing financial circumstances.

Right at the moment it's hard to see a significant upturn in that time. I hope I'm wrong!

I won't get into too much detail, but suffice to say elected members went through many programmes on a line-by-line basis and were hard, but fair in what got eliminated. Projects underway were kept in and other projects linked to committed works were also left alone. For example, if a road was to be upgraded then it makes sense to do associated work while the road is torn up.

New parks on hold

Future playgrounds have been wiped and future open space projects have been put on hold. Council will make better use of existing open space like sports fields by lighting some for night use and more maintenance. Users will be asked to modify their usage times to try and spread peak demand like Saturday morning.

Parau Farms delayed

Development of Parau Farms at Bethlehem was set down for a 2016 start date at a cost of $11 million in today's dollars funded from building impact fees.

At the moment that would not be prudent financial management so it needs to be delayed, but at least the land is preserved.

Community centres planned for the Lakes, Wairakei and other plans have been shelved and we will make do with existing facilities.

No to iPads

A proposal to equip elected members with the latest electronic equipment for council agendas and reports was kicked for touch for the time being. Rick Curach, a self professed electronic whiz kid, said it wouldn't work for him, so the rest of us would struggle. The volume of council work with significant cross referencing means a lot of paper would still need to be generated. No-one is averse to electronics – just the application in what the work requires makes it impractical at present.

Hot mix too much

Roading re-seals will be chip seal for other than collector roads. Hot mix is really expensive and can be categorised as a nice-to-have. Its cost benefit versus its durability just doesn't stack up. Likewise street lighting renewals and there will be a standard renewal programme when all those flasho light poles have to be replaced. They will be powder coated to tone in with surrounding pole colour schemes.

Renaming solutions

In ongoing discussion on subdivision impact fees (SIF) and building impact fees (BIF), council will consult with you in 2013/14 on a merger of the two fees. This could mean payment upfront on completion of the subdivision of both fees. At present you only pay BIFs when you build a house, so at The Lakes for instance, council has only collected SIFs on the unbuilt sections. But to ease the pain, it is proposed to change the SIF name to Local Development Contribution and the BIF to City-Wide Development Contribution. Seems like shifting deck chairs on the Titanic doesn't it? But the matter of intergenerational equity on projects like the Southern Pipeline will be challenged with central government. Government legislation says that councils can only charge the same amount for development contributions throughout the life of a project.

Pipeline problems

The Southern Pipeline has been designed for the next 50 years and the per section contribution is supposed to be the same for the last section hooked up to it as the first. This is hugely unfair. As inflation and CPI move it is only fair to adjust the cost to keep the price the same in terms of purchasing power.

Fixing the floods

Stormwater upgrades to ease flooding in the Portside, Triton and Te Maire area at Mount Maunganui industrial area will get priority. Ratepayers have funded $70 million in stormwater upgrades since the 2005 disaster. Staff have come up with some interesting fix up initiatives with minimal consultant input. These proposals will still cost, but at a fraction of the cost of what consultants estimated. Nothing finalised, but extensive computer modelling is required and will be further investigated before a final decision.

Vehicle fleet on the cheap

Council will retain ownership of its fleet of 80 or so work vehicles as opposed to leasing. All vehicles are work related and we do not supply company cars to executive staff. It's all included in the remuneration packages they receive.

The cost of water

Council will again investigate wastewater charges as a percentage of water consumption. The object of the exercise is to further reduce water consumption in an attempt to further delay the Waiari Water Plant. Each year it can be delayed will save $3.5 million approx. Council will consider a stepped water tariff which rewards lower consumption at the expense of higher use on a percentage basis. There are many scenarios, but as noted last week the water account is currently $2 million in arrears and this will have to be addressed.

Council will continue trucking sewerage sludge to landfill for the immediate future as this is the cheapest and most practical method.

All of this is for a draft Three Year/Ten Year Plan proposal for your consultation and submission before adoption after further deliberation next year.

This week's mind bender from Mark Twain: 'Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”