Top ten korero

What's your water worth?

Independent experts have confirmed that since the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 we have underinvested in our three waters network and it is starting to deteriorate.

We have a $126 million backlog of pipes that need replacing immediately. It will cost up to $300 million over the next 10 years to clear the backlog.

There are three ways we could approach this problem and we want your view on the best option: 

• Just do the minimum: Invest an extra $380 a year per household per year. 
• Let’s get this sorted: Invest an extra $500 a year per household per year. 
• Let’s smash it: Invest an extra $850 a year per household per year.   

Survey closed 12 October.

Our world was upended by Covid 19. The shockwaves have knocked our economy and we want to make sure Taranaki is managing the turmoil and planning ahead. The Government is leading the economic and social recovery. In Taranaki, NPDC will be a major player, the work we do in coming years will lay the foundations of our recovery and help determine how quickly our community and economy bounces back.

Our current Covid Response resulted in $20 million for our Back On Our Feet initiatives including:

• Rates holidays for struggling households and businesses.
• Zero-interest and cheap loans to make homes warmer and greener.
• Slashing licence and on-street dining fees for the hospitality sector.
• Grants for main street property-owners and businesses to spruce up buildings and shop frontages.
• And more, find out about all Back On Our Feet measures

Have we got the economic medicine about right? Or should we be looking to find more savings in our operations or be investing more in major work programmes to create jobs and stimulate the local economy? 

Survey closed 12 October.

NPDC provides essential services, like water, roads and rubbish collection, to about 82,000 residents; we plan how we’re going to live and work; we deal with your building applications; we  run Puke Ariki Museum, Todd-Energy Aquatic Centre, Brooklands Zoo, TSB Stadium, 1,600 hectares of parks and walkways, the TSB Bowl of Brooklands, a raft of events including the TSB Festival of Lights, and much, much more.
So local government should matter and we want to know how we should be engaging with you because what you think and say is important as it helps us make decisions.

We try to keep you up-to-date through our quarterly rates newsletter, our website, social media, local newspapers and local radio.

We partner with mana whenua through Te Huinga Taumatua committee, and work closely with Zeal to help give our young people a voice.

But do we have the mix about right? 

Survey closed 12 October.

Each person uses about 292 litres of water a day making us one of the thirstiest places in New Zealand.

The network of more than 800km of pipes, pumps, and reservoirs needed to get water from our rivers and lakes to your tap is hugely expensive with ongoing compliance costs. One of the main challenges with saving water is that each household only pays a flat rate of about $0.95 per day for water which often goes under the radar. To help us take the next step in saving water we could installwater meters so that each household knows just how much water they are using.

We anticipate average water use dropping by about a quarter over 10 years if meters are introduced. If we keep it down, that would mean savings of about $40 million on infrastructure upgrades over the next 30 years, as well as:

• Less water taken from lakes and rivers.
• Reducing the amount of chemicals and energy used during treatment.
• Less wastewater going to treatment.

Water meters are proven to help us cut water use but should we make them priority? 

Survey closed 12 October.

We've made some great progress towards Zero Waste over the past 5 years, but we are still sending 60,000 tonnes of waste to landfill each year. More than half of that landfill rubbish is commercial and industrial waste. Business waste is everyone’s business because we all pay for it and so does our environment. We can handle that business waste better but we’d need a dedicated recycling facility where we can sort and manage it.  Building one at Colson Road would cost about $3.5 million and would be paid for from reserve funds. 

We’re also looking at new ways to stop those hard-to-recycle plastics going to landfill but is it time we invest more in teaching people how to avoid them? It’s time to ask if we should go the extra mile with business waste and plastic education, or do we just keep cruising to the landfill with it?

Survey closed 12 October. 

Our town centres are important to our economic and social wellbeing. When their tills are ringing, they lift us all with jobs, visitors and more spending. The flip side is empty shops and for lease signs.

Our residents have told us they want a central city that has more green spaces, arts, culture and welcomes families, where they want to visit and hang out. We bought the old Metro Plaza building with that in mind so we can continue to open up the Huatoki Stream area as a green heart. We’re also working on bringing more life onto Devon Street East after securing government funding for a planned new outdoor zone east near the Joe’s Garage corner.

Our smaller centres are vital to keeping our rural heartland pumping. Over the last year our community boards have been seeking feedback on what residents would like to see. This includes sprucing up Waitara’s main street with building upgrades and street design to attract new shops, protecting heritage buildings and doing up the railway station area in Inglewood, and preserving the village feel of Urenui.

Our town centres and central city are critical. We want to know how you think about them and how we can help make them even more vibrant. 

Survey closed 12 October.

We’ve always looked to the sea for trade and food; our beaches are our playground and our magnificent coastline is a stunning attraction.

But are we making the most of our seafront?

One idea that’s been floated is a marina at Breakwater Bay, on the western side of the city. Similar developments near ports like Picton, Nelson, Napier and Whangarei have generated new leisure and shopping precincts, creating revenue that might help offset rates in the long run.

The sea has given us prosperity and a place to spend our recreation time; could a marina build on that?

Survey closed 12 October.

Our spectacular outdoors bring walkers, trampers, cyclists and other visitors wanting to share our awesome lifestyle. But we’re still inspired to ask if we’re making the most of it?  

With our iwi and hapū partners, we’re working on two big projects that would tie our most stunning landmarks into a great Kiwi experience. 

We’ve been working on taking our Coastal Walkway from Bell Block to Waitara. We have been working with hapū on a design that helps tell the stories of the historic landscape which features once thriving pā sites and their links to kai moana beds, and ancient routes to the Mounga.  

Our second big idea is the Taranaki Traverse, up the Waiwhakaiho River to Mounga Taranaki, and then down the Kaitake Ranges from Pukeiti to Ōākura.  

It would be another world-class destination in our own backyard, working with DOC, Taranaki Regional Council, iwi and other partners.  

Our tracks and trails and green spaces are part of our heritage.  Should we build on that heritage by making Tracks and Trails a focus of our ten-year plan? 

Survey closed 12 October. 

We committed to an urgent response to climate change in December last year, sending a clear signal that we need to work fast to soften our impact on our planet.
We’ve started working on how we can reduce our emissions as well as plan for the impacts of climate challenges.

What more can we do at home, at work and elsewhere? Can we make our roads safer and easier for lower emissions transport like cycling and buses, for instance?

Some of these things will cost us, but the longer we wait, the greater the cost. What do you think we should invest in now, and how quickly do we move to a cleaner, greener future?

Survey closed 12 October.

Sport Taranaki, has led a Community Sports Facility Needs Assessment that says TSB Stadium and our other sporting facilities aren’t meeting the needs of the sports codes for turf and indoor court space. Around one in five of our residents play netball, basketball, football, touch, hockey, rugby or cricket, and many more are taking up sports such as tennis and gymnastics. These and other codes are asking for a multi-purpose hub. It could also be a home for major public events like national tournaments and big events such as kapa haka.

Sport Taranaki says stage one of their proposal would cost roughly $60 million which would include a purpose-built indoor stadium, hockey turf, grass fields and road upgrades. If it’s given the green light, it would be a major piece of work, some years away, so we need know just how much it matters to our residents, whether people think it’s affordable and who would pay for it?

What do you think? Will a multi-purpose hub be a win for our District?

Survey closed 12 October