An extra $1 million for roading to respond to community demands and a budget reshuffle signals a 5.9 per cent average rate rise in the Ashburton District.
Faced with five options ranging from 5.9 to 8.8 per cent, the councillors opted to include an extra $1m of unsubsidised road funding, but kept the rate rise down to 5.9 per cent by reorganising other work.
Chief executive, Hamish Riach, said the reshuffle essentially removed around $1.3m out of the budget for the inclusion of the $1m on roading.
The reshuffle is some water and wastewater renewals will be delayed that were unlikely to be completed in the work programme anyway, and a reduced depreciation to match the reduced spend.
The revised draft budget has an increase of around $2.65m on the 2022-23 budget, but only an $881,894 increase what was proposed in the long-term plan (LTP), which had forecast a 5.5 per cent rise.
Mayor Neil Brown said the extra $1m for road maintenance is not for fixing potholes, as that’s already covered in the budget, but is for “building new road” by contributing around 4km of road rehabilitation on top of the existing 10km subsidised by Waka Kotahi.
As well as the additional road funding, a large chunk of the increase is related to three waters compliance and is work the council has no choice but to complete, including $200,000 to develop water safety plans.
Other factors impacting the overall budget picture were a proposed re-use shop at the council’s resource recovery park being pulled from the annual plan, and will be addressed in next year’s LTP.
The proposed addition of an extra $180,000 for visitor promotion did not get enough support.
An additional $60,000 for CBD landscape maintenance was added, while the Balmoral Hall upgrade has been included.
The proposed $464,000 refurbishment, which is a loan funded project and has no impact on the rates rise, may not go ahead as it requires further investigation.
There will also be an increase in parking fees at Eastfield, going up from $2 to $3.
A draft annual plan will come back to the council by the end of March, and as it will be close to the LTP there is no requirement for consultation.
As it was close to what was set in the long-term plan, councillor Russell Ellis said with the historic low turnout in consultations “it’s not worth the effort” or the around $25,000 cost to consult.

• By Jonathan Leask