Napier City Council's Long Term Plan

Councils do lots of planning. A Long Term Plan (LTP) pulls together a plan for all our activities, major projects, our expected income and costs, and what our rates will need to be for the next ten years. Long Term Plans are a legal requirement and we’re required to review our LTP every three years. Our current LTP (2021-31) was adopted in June 2021. 

Due to the disruption caused by Cyclone Gabrielle, the Government changed the legislated requirement for NCC to produce a Long Term Plan with a ten-year horizon. The Government has instead enabled NCC to produce an unaudited, three-year plan for 2024-2027. This change is an acknowledgement of the effects Cyclone Gabrielle has had on our resources and ability to deliver previously planned projects. Despite now preparing a Three-Year Plan, information on budgets and plans beyond 30 June 2027 will be provided to give the community a picture of what projects are in the pipeline over the longer term. 

Typically, before we finalise the contents of the Long Term Plan (or in this case, a Three-Year Plan), we go through an engagement process with the community. We ran a community survey in October 2023, asking our residents and ratepayers what they think Napier’s priorities should be. This feedback helped to inform what we included in the draft Three-Year Plan. 

We then sought formal feedback on the draft Three-Year Plan through a community consultation from 25 March to 26 April 2024. You can view the booklet version of the consultation here, although submissions are now closed. 

Submission hearings will be held on 27 and 28 May at the Napier War Memorial Centre. This meeting will be live-streamed on our Facebook page. Following the hearings, Council will deliberate on the proposals. The finalised Three-Year Plan will be adopted no later than 30 June 2024.

Our Three-Year Plan 2024-27

The environment we’re currently facing is new and challenging. There are different external factors that have impacted the direction our draft Three-Year Plan has taken. These are: 

Cyclone Gabrielle 

Cyclone Gabrielle has resulted in new and unexpected challenges that will require significant time and resources from Council. Our draft Three-Year Plan will detail what we need to do to recover from the cyclone, both now and over the next three years. There is much work to be done, which means some projects that were previously planned may need to be delayed to later years.  

Various government reform programmes will have a major impact on our future. Water services legislation will change under the Government's Local Water Done Well policy. Until decisions are made about next steps, the Three-Year Plan 2024-27 is being prepared assuming that Napier City Council will continue to provide drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services to Napier residents. Our investment in water services will be the same as our historical investment until a way forward is decided.  

The Future of Local Government Review Report recommends many changes to how councils operate to address the challenges we will face over the next 30 years and ensure our communities thrive. 

The economic environment 

High inflation has had a big impact on our ability to fund services and activities, and this is likely to continue into the near future. A tight labour market also means we need to ensure our projects and activities can be adequately resourced with the right number of staff. 

These external factors mean we need to carefully prioritise our budgets and activities in the coming years to ensure we achieve what we set out to do, and work hard to keep rates increases affordable. 

A focus on core activities along with recovery 

Our Three-Year Plan will detail what we need to do to recover from Cyclone Gabrielle. We’ll also focus on the core Council activities our community expects us to provide. These are services such as rubbish collection, roading maintenance, and maintaining community facilities that promote emotional, physical and cultural wellbeing. We’ll prioritise the projects that will help us to deliver these services and activities well.    

Council’s Vision and Strategic Priorities  

To guide us in this decision making, Napier City Council has developed a new Vision and new Strategic Priorities. 

We've developed these to help us focus on doing the essentials well, rather than spreading ourselves thinly across a lot of different things that aren't needed right now.