Getting the Regional Council fit for purpose

• All budgets, projects and activities reviewed

• Funding reprioritised and $500k savings made

• Reviewed approach to compliance, land management, communications & IT

• Re-organisation to improve effectiveness of council operations

• Proposing to increase user charges for consents to 80% recovery, additional $400k revenue

• Attracting third party funding – central government, corporate, philanthropic

• Actively investing unallocated capital from Ruataniwha Scheme

• Increased Council borrowing to spread costs for intergenerational projects

• ‘Average’ rate for 2018/19 proposed to be $371

• 70% of ratepayers will pay less than $300 in 2018/19

• The ‘average’ increase for 49,552 ratepayers will be $1 per week or less.

• Half of all ratepayers will pay 60 cents or less per week more.

https://www.hbrc.govt.nz/our-council/consultation/current-consultations/facing-our-future-long-term-plan/rate/

Civil Defence

• We propose to take full responsibility for collecting regional Civil Defence rates.

• HBRC provides CDEM for the whole region, previously done by each individual council, saves $100k p.a.

• Has improved capability and level of service, consistent with approach nationally

• This is 5.2% of the total proposed rate increase

• Net neutral for ratepayers, so actual net increase in rates overall is 13.8%

• Funding also included for continuing coastal hazard work: $3/household in Hastings and Napier

Working with Tāngata Whenua

• HB Regional Planning Committee Act 2015 requires co-governance of policies and rules for managing our environment

• All regional Treaty Settlements require HBRC to have formal relationships with settlement entities

• Most HBRC legislation requires particular engagement

• Tangata whenua bring kaitiakitanga perspective & long view

• 2% of the total rate increase is to fund tangata whenua participation and dedicated HBRC staff for more effective partnership

Macro-InvertebrateCommunityIndex: Measure of ecological health

• 277,000 hectares of highly erosion prone land in HB

• Losing over 5 million tonnes of sediment annually from hill country

• If all planted then a 90% reduction in sediment

• Targeted treatment of 100,000 hectares forecast to reduce sediment by 50 - 60%

• 1.1 million tonnes of soil each year from stream bank erosion - this could reduce by 70% once planted vegetation is mature

Land and water

• 9.5% of the proposed rate increase is to more urgently fix issues in our environment

• Riparian fencing, planting, wetlands and reforestation, subsidised up to 75%: $30m over 10 years + potential commercial forestry

• Farm Environment Plans, interest free and paid off on rates

• Future Farming Trust to help uptake of good practice

Why now?

• We are required to improve swimmability & health of our rivers

• Shading and planting reduce contaminants, weed and algae

• Climate change expected to bring more intense and frequent heavy rainfall, accelerated hill country and stream bank erosion

Current level of riverbank erosion

=282,000 t/yr

50% Riparian Fencing= 179,000 t/yr

100% Riparian Fencing= 75,000 t/yr

Biodiversity

• Proposal to set up and fund HB Biodiversity Foundation to ‘crowd in’ other funders: corporate, philanthropic

• 72% of NZ native freshwater fish species are ‘threatened’ or ‘at risk’

• Rats, stoats, and possums kill about 25 million native birds nationwide every year, many threatened.

Biosecurity

• Possum control has been very successful, we plan to extend this programme to tackle goats, stoats, ferrets, feral cats and hedgehogs

• Expand Cape to City to wider region

Setting environmental limits…

and enforcing them

Regulation: Science, Planning, Consents, Compliance

• HBRC required to set water quality and quantity limits for all waterbodies and have plans underway to improve degraded ones by 2025

• Forestry to be regulated – establishment and harvest - from May 2018

• Need to monitor and enforce new rules and more complex consents

• More regulation relies on increased science monitoring and reporting

• 1,100 farm environment plans required in Tukituki catchment by 31 May

• Heretaunga TANK Plan Change will contain extensive new policies and rules for all four catchments, aim to notify later this year

Sustainable Homes

• Extend the successful HeatSmart programme to make properties more sustainable and resilient

• No direct cost to ratepayers, fully cost recovered, but ‘leverages’ the HBRC’s ability to borrow for community benefit, especially where there are upfront affordability issues.

• Solar hot water heating

• PhotoVoltaic cells

• Domestic water storage

• Septic tank replacement

Tuki Tuki Catchment Plan (Plan Change 6)• Farm Environment and Phosphorus/Sediment Management Plans

required for accessing fencing/planting subsidies

• Mandatory stock exclusion/fencing required under Tuki Tuki Plan

• Tuki Tuki first catchment for mandatory FEMPs and stock exclusion so at front of queue, and CHB a major recipient of HBRC funds

• $5 million available for feasibility studies of water storage and augmentation, Ruataniwha zone a priority, eg. aquifer recharge, deep groundwater or smaller storage for low flow augmentation

• Science package includes new Ruataniwha Groundwater Model and SkyTEM survey

• Sustainable Homes initiative will assist small communities such as Tikokino and Ongaonga with septic tank replacement and rain tanks

• Farmer-led Future Farming Trust will assist with HB specific knowledge sharing and research

Hawke’s Bay Tourism

• Stepping back the funding of HB Tourism is a 1.6% rates reduction to help us focus on environmental priorities.

• HB Tourism has been very successful and industry is growing well, is it time for the primary beneficiaries – the industry – to fund a greater share?

Local Government Funding Agency• Joining this scheme has no upward impact on rates

or debt but gives us access to lower interest rates for borrowing

• Very low risk, 54 other councils in scheme, common overseas model

Community meetings

Tell us what you think!

• Online

• In person – at community events

• In writing

• Facebook posts

Send us your feedback by Monday 23 April 2018