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 or 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
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