Councillors will soon begin the first of several workshops to draft an Annual Plan and budget for 2026-27.

The draft plan will outline Council’s activities and projects for the 12 months from July and  focus on essential work like drinking water, wastewater treatment and roading.

Mayor Liz McMillan said Council would be busy in the new financial year delivering those core services, and other projects.

“The second bridge is now under way and we’ll have to confirm our contribution to that project, and Council is also introducing a new food and greenwaste kerbside collection in September.

“We know that other important work will need to be done too, and we’ll hear more details in these coming workshops.”

Charges for drinking water, wastewater and stormwater have already been signalled as part of the Water Services Delivery Plan that Council was required to prepare and submit to Government last year as part of the Local Water Done Well programme.

Under that delivery plan, the combined water charges for those in serviced urban areas would rise from $1490 this year to around $1670 for 2026-27.

Council is planning to spend about $26 million on water projects, to ensure it complies with new national rules – this includes $3.7m on water meters, $4m on water main renewals, $5.4m on irrigation for the Ocean Farm wastewater facility and $3.7m for wastewater pipe renewals.

Mayor McMillan said the Long Term Plan had forecast an average 11 per cent rates increase for 2026-27, but Councillors would be looking to trim that where they could, without running down levels of service the community expected.

“Our challenges are that Council is not immune to the same cost of living increases as the person who lives down the street and has a mortgage, uses electricity and pays insurance. We will focus on the core work, like water services, roads, and rubbish, because this maintains a solid platform for families and businesses, and we will make savings where we can or consider deferring work.”

The Draft Annual Plan workshops are planned for Tuesday 3 February and Tuesday 10 February and these are open to the public.