Have your say  |  19 Mar 2024

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Alongside the big-picture proposals in Christchurch City Council's latest Draft Long Term Plan, there are a number of smaller issues for people to weigh up as they have their say.

The Draft Long Term Plan 2024-2034 is out for consultation until Sunday 21 April, and proposes a $16.8 billion budget over the full 10 years.

Although there are some big programmes making up a big proportion of that spending – things like water, transport and Te Kaha, Canterbury's Multi-Use Arena – there are some projects and proposals dealing in smaller sums of money, or proposed changes to the way we do things, that are just as important to sections of the Christchurch and Banks Peninsula community.

  • $820 million on parks and foreshore, with big projects including $185 million on the parks element of the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor, $87 million on sports field development, $23 million on Akaroa Wharf, $22 million on Te Nukutai o Tapoa – Naval Point and $21 million on Takapūneke Reserve.

    Parks and foreshore big projects included in the Long Term Plan includes $23 million for Akaroa Wharf.

  • $51 million on repairing and restoring heritage items around Christchurch and Banks Peninsula, including $20 million on the first stage of the Canterbury Provincial Chambers, $9 million on Cuningham House in the Botanic Gardens, and $15 million on strengthening and base isolation for the Robert McDougall Gallery.

  • Of the $140 million capital spend proposed for Christchurch City Libraries, there's $29 million budgeted for the rebuild of the earthquake-damaged South Library and Service Centre building, Ōmōkihi, which includes $9 million of funding from the Government over the first two years. The rest of the spend includes looking after existing facilities, expanding and renewing the library collection and continuing to invest in technology solutions.

  • $64 million on recycling and transfer station improvements over the next 10 years. The Council no longer uses its old landfills, which require careful management to make sure they don’t affect their surrounding environment. The Council plans to complete a Closed Landfill Management Plan over the first few years of the LTP and proposes spending $22 million at Burwood and other landfills on aftercare management and mitigation, including $4 million at Okains Bay.

  • The Council currently borrows to fund some of the cost of our annual asset renewal programme, and has been transitioning to fully fund these renewals from rates by 2031. However, the Draft LTP proposes to increase the level of rating for asset renewals over the next two years by significantly less than what's proposed in the Council's Financial Strategy. This means the work would get done while reducing the rates increase over the next couple of years, but also means an extra $84 million in borrowing in the short term – and the interest payments that come with it. The Council would return to having a balanced budget in years 4–10 of the LTP.

  • The Council is proposing some changes to how it charges rates – including charging the business differential to properties being used as short-term un-hosted residential accommodation (such as Airbnb, Bookabach, and similar), extending the City Vacant Differential rating to an expected 40 vacant sites in Linwood Village, New Brighton, Sydenham, and Lyttelton, changes to rates postponements for people in significant financial hardship and changes that will give the Council more flexibility in how it grants rates remissions to charities.

More detail on all these proposals, and more, can be found at ccc.govt.nz/longtermplan

The Council plans to complete a Closed Landfill Management Plan which covers Burwood.