The curtain is set to come down on the current council term, but not before some big decisions are made.
Four current Ashburton District councillors will sign off for the last time at Wednesday’s council meeting while the other six who are standing for re-election have to wait until Saturday afternoon to learn if they too need to clean out their desks as well.
Angus McKay, Dianne Rawlinson, John Falloon and Stuart Wilson are not standing for re-election and will deliver farewell speeches, but not before getting some important business done.
The first item is adopting the Ashburton Airport 30-year development plan.
The plan drew plenty of interest with 107 submissions and a large number of those being heard at a lengthy submission hearing.
The plan proposes to set up sites for new recreational hangars, commercial hangars, and residential hangar homes, and the expansion of the Ashburton Aviation Museum all to make the council-owned asset financially self-sustaining in the future.
The possibility of a flight school leasing a site caused plenty of contention but it is set to be considered as a separate matter in future.
The council will consider its support for Aoraki Environmental Consultancy’s application to the Ministry for the Environment for the Ōtūwharekai Mātauranga Māori Cultural Monitoring Programme.
Te Rūnaka o Arowhenua, via Aoraki Environmental Consultancy, has been working with the Ministry on a project in the Ōtūwharekai (Ashburton Lakes) area to build capacity and capability for Māori to participate in and make decisions for freshwater management in the area.
The council are not being asked to contribute any resources, only their support for the funding application.
Several stockwater items are on the agenda with the council to decide its stance on a request from Acton Farmers Irrigation Co-operative (AFIC) to transfer stock water races and two stockwater race closure applications are being considered.
The council will consider adopting its stormwater bylaw, rolling over the community honours awards policy and signing off the allocation for community grants and funding for 2022/23.
The council will then delegate its responsibilities, duties, and powers to the chief executive, Hamish Riach, until the swearing in of the new council on October 27.
Incumbent Mayor Neil will then sign off the council term with his mayor’s report before the four returning councillors say farewell.

• By Jonathan Leask