Residents seek an affordable, vibrant and prosperous community featuring a growing number of jobs, increased housing stock, a higher proportion of home ownership and a reduction in those on benefits.
Consultation is underway on Porirua City Council’s (20-year) Long Term Plan 2018-38 (LTP) and I urge ratepayers to participate, as it is vital to our community’s future. This is the last LTP update that will be published before the Transmission Gully project is completed. If we send the right signals through feedback on the forthcoming draft, then there is a chance that our local job market will expand. Conversely, we could be by-passed, condemning the less well-off in our community to ongoing disadvantage and relative poverty: a condition that the Central Government is working to overcome.
Consultation is underway on Porirua City Council’s (20-year) Long Term Plan 2018-38 (LTP) and I urge ratepayers to participate, as it is vital to our community’s future. This is the last LTP update that will be published before the Transmission Gully project is completed. If we send the right signals through feedback on the forthcoming draft, then there is a chance that our local job market will expand. Conversely, we could be by-passed, condemning the less well-off in our community to ongoing disadvantage and relative poverty: a condition that the Central Government is working to overcome.
To attract jobs into the area, Porirua must be competitive within the Region. Recent media reports disclose that the Hutt City is looking to cap annual increases in rates at 1.5%, whereas Wellington is looking to be under 3% per annum. PCC have signalled rate increases greater than 5%, despite already being the highest in the region: this will further undermine Regional competitiveness.
Councillors face a tough trade off. If rates increases are to be regionally competitive, there will have to be selected service reductions and the deferment of high-profile capital projects. Some promises will have to be deferred. But our Councillors will have done the right thing for the people they want to help: the less well-off and disadvantaged sectors in our society. The alternative is to lock in the proposed increases in the rates, making Porirua region even less competitive and by-passed by business with all the ills that implies.
If Council do care about the future financial viability of our city and its less well off citizens, then the following should occur:
- Domestic rates pegged at 1.5% plus growth (matching the Hutt);
- Commercial rates reduced to be competitive with Wellington and the Hutt;
- A moratorium on all capital expenditure except for essential core infrastructure;
- Delivery of a significant efficiency dividend from the PCC bureaucracy; and
- Listen to the community about where and how to reduce service levels.
There is always a price to pay when there has been profligate overspending as has happened within PCC. That is why our rates are already tens of percents higher than our neighbours. These excessive rates make it more difficult for families with mortgages or rents to pay, and for seniors on Superannuation. Don’t let the lure of short term gain condemn sectors of our community to relative and ongoing poverty. Give our Region the chance to expand its job market and to give our communities hope for the future.
Ratepayers who care about our City and its communities, should help by participating in the consultation process. Rather than using the PCC website that asks multiple questions, simply write a short letter to the Mayor expressing your concerns. I have no doubt that he will welcome your views.
Andrew Weeks
Chairman PEDG