What is an Annual Plan and why does it matter?

An Annual Plan (annual budget) details the activities, services, and capital projects we intend to implement, along with how we will fund these initiatives, including the necessary rates. It also emphasises any significant changes for the upcoming year from Tasman's 10-Year Plan 2024 – 2034. The Council will make final decisions for the Annual Plan 2025/2026 in June 2025. The final plan will be available on our website in July 2025.

Under the Local Government Act, councils are required to consult on an annual plan if the changes proposed are significant or there are material differences from the content of the 10-Year Plan. As our proposed changes are more substantial for the 2025/2026 year we want to be open about them and the opportunity for you to have input into the changes in service that impact you.

The purpose of this information is to:

• Explain how we worked out the rates revenue increase and how we plan to pay for things.
• Share the current challenges the Council is facing.
• Ask for your feedback on the changes that could affect you.

Part 1: Our operating environment

The Annual Plan 2025/2026 is about finding the right balance – continuing to work toward our vision for future generations, while keeping it fair and as affordable as possible today.

We need to commit to a certain level of investment to maintain what we have now and to provide for our future growth. But like all councils in Aotearoa New Zealand, particularly in growth areas like ours, the Council is working under significant funding pressure.

The challenging economic outlook affects all our ratepayers, and we are conscious of the trade-off between investing in our District and what our ratepayers consider an affordable amount of rates to pay.

Part 2: Have your say

This proposal sets out how we have responded to the context in which we are operating and the decisions we have made to balance affordability with delivering the core important services you expect and value.

We welcome your feedback by 25 May.

• Do you support our approach to achieving the proposed rates increase for 2025/2026?
• Do you have any feedback on any of the proposals outlined below (numbered 1 – 15 )? Each includes a brief description of what it is and the associated budget increase or decrease.

Click here to have your say.

Our proposed changes

1. Catchment enhancement

The catchment enhancement fund has been reduced by $100,000

This fund supports initiatives that deliver the most appropriate and effective intervention on land and in waterways that improve the ecological health of waterbodies, their margins and the catchment.

Council catchment staff work in collaboration with other council functions, mana whenua, catchment groups and individual landowners to identify and deliver these projects. External funders and landowners all contribute to the projects to ensure best value for money. A reduced budget will result in fewer projects being delivered and less funding to improve water quality in accordance with the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management.

2. Information technology

Budget reduction of $80,000

Staff laptops will be replaced less frequently, saving $80,000 per year.

3. Engagement and communication

Budget reductions of $109,000

The budget for the Councils employee engagement survey has been reduced by $30,000. This will result in a one-year break from this survey. The external publicity budget has been reduced by $79,000, which will limit our ability to undertake any unplanned publicity activities.

4. Community funding

Community grant budgets have decreased by $62,000

A decrease of $35,000 to the annual school pool subsidy, which aligns with a reduced level of uptake in recent years. This fund helps schools in the District to open their pools during the summer holiday for community use.

The community event grants budget will decrease by $27,000 which will remove funding for Motueka summer events, Children’s Day, Opera in the Park, spring outdoor movie night, Tasman Skatepark Tour, and cycling events.

5. Roading and public transport

Transportation budgets have a net decrease of $128,000. Some of the more substantial changes proposed are as follows:

Budget reductions of $177,000 for footpath and cycle path maintenance, pest control and our road safety programme, which reflect reductions in NZTA funding with no impact on rates.

Budget increases of $200,000 to maintain service levels for street litter bins and town centre landscaping.

The introduction of reactive maintenance only of existing, maintained, shrubbed and grassed landscaped areas. This means within the draft budget, reactive maintenance only will be carried out to keep roads and footpaths clear of obstructions. This reactive maintenance will consist of either:

• Mowing using the Council’s roadside mower (which would leave detritus and possibly damage plants)

• Spraying (to kill off vegetation and prevent it from regrowing) where mowing is not feasible (for example, flax bushes or areas unreachable by the mower)

• Hand trimming if neither mowing nor spraying are feasible.

Changes to NZTA public transport funding for the eBus service will increase our costs by $80,000.

An LTP budget error in the costs of the Māpua Ferry has been corrected, resulting in a $103,000 budget increase.

The Council proposes to introduce paid parking to some existing all-day car parks in the Richmond CBD from 1 October 2025 for off-street, all-day car parks on weekdays (8.00 am to 5.00 pm). Get more information on the parking proposal here.

6. Urban stormwater networks

The stormwater budgets have a net decrease of$61,000. Some of the more substantial changes proposed are as follows:

The routine maintenance budget for vegetation control will decrease by $45,000 and the reactive maintenance budget will increase by $25,000 to closer reflect actual costs. These changes will enable us to maintain open channels without a notable change in service level.

A budget increase of $70,000 for catchment management plans to meet higher costs associated with expected environmental performance standards, requirements proposed for secondary flow path mapping under the Water Services Bill, increasing complexity of modelling when factoring in climate change, and higher levels of iwi engagement.

7. Waste management and minimisation

The waste management and minimisation budgets have a net decrease of $605,000. Some of the more substantial changes proposed are as follows:

Budget increases of $38,000 for litter reduction initiatives, CCTV surveillance and illegal dumping to better align with the actual costs of responding to increased incidents of illegal dumping throughout the District.

Resource Recovery Centre (RRC) operating budgets funded by general rates have increased by $300,000, as waste volumes are forecast to be lower than estimated and so recovery from fees and charges will also be lower.

Our kerbside recycling operating budget has reduced by $500,000 as a result of lower contract rates and direct income from processing recycling for new commercial customers and for Nelson City Council.

We will use the Government’s waste levy for transporting recyclable materials from RRCs for processing and export ($80,000), litter prevention activities that promote waste minimisation ($5,000), and upgrading the Richmond Materials Recovery Facility ($1.0m), where these have been previously funded by general and targeted rates.

8. Library services

The budgets for our libraries have decreased by $130,000

Reduced opening hours. The Richmond Library will close at 5.00 pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Motueka Library will close at 5.00 pm on Friday.

Some regular pre-school and children’s programmes, school holiday and selected adult programmes, outreach and housebound services will be reduced.

9. Operating and maintaining Council’s water supplies

The water supply budgets have a net increase of $781,000. Some of the more substantial changes proposed are as follows:

Budget increases of $412,000 are required to carry out water monitoring and sampling of the network and water quality to meet national water regulator Taumata Arowai requirements. Reactive and routine water supply maintenance budgets increases of $340,000 to improve network resilience, our response to issues, and to help minimise public health risks.

A decrease of $197,000 in the Waimea Community Dam operations cost share for water accounts. Waimea Water Limited (WWL) transitioned from post-construction to future operations. This has allowed WWL to refine the operational costs of the Dam downwards.

Budget decreases of $140,000 for condition assessments of the water network and modelling. This will limit our ability to model our networks and proactively detect leaks or reduce the chance of leaks occurring.

10. Emergency management

Emergency management budgets have increased by $109,000

A budget increase of $84,000 will enable the Council’s portion of the shared service arrangement with Nelson City Council for the delivery of the civil defence function to be fully funded. This is a commitment the Council has already made.

A further budget increase of $25,000 will provide funding to support a new agreement between Tasman and Nelson Councils to combine the Marine Oil Spill Coordination role as part of the Emergency Management office function. This will greatly enhance our ability to provide effective marine oil spill cover for both Tasman and Nelson City Councils by providing additional coordination capability. This also mitigates the risk we hold for providing an effective oil spill response and for the timely recovery of funds from Maritime NZ.

11. Iwi partnerships

Budget increase of $35,000

This budget increase will help cover Committee iwi representative roles and resource consent review costs.

12. Regulatory services

The regulatory compliance budget has increased by $222,000

The Council agreed in March 2025 to bring the regulatory compliance function in-house, and this budget increase reflects the cost of delivering this service. A contractor previously performed regulatory functions on behalf of the Council, which includes dog control, parking enforcement, and monitoring freedom camping.

Moving this service in-house requires an investment in staff, training and resources.

13. Wastewater schemes

The wastewater budgets have a net increase of $275,000. Some of the more substantial changes proposed are as follows:

An increase to the routine maintenance budget of $193,000 to provide for adequate maintenance levels.

Budget reductions of $285,000 for reactive maintenance, inflow and infiltration reduction programmes and CCTV inspections. These decreases will mean we have limited budget to investigate pipe condition and identify sources of leaks or causes of blockages to undertake repairs.

Nelson Regional Sewerage Business Unit (NRSBU) costs will increase by $242,000 to reduce wastewater overflows.

14. Maintaining our parks and reserves

The reserves and facilities budgets have a net increase of $613,000. Some of the more substantial changes proposed are as follows:

Increases of $513,000 to the maintenance budgets for walkways, parks, reserves and facilities to more closely align with inflation and maintain levels of service for an increased number of assets.

Increases of $50,000 to both the vandalism response budget and protected trees budget, to match the increasing costs we are experiencing in responding to vandalism.

Capital expenditure in 2025/2026 has risen from $81m to $88.5m (an increase of $7.5m). The key programme

movements are outlined below.

PROJECTS REMOVED OR BUDGETS DEFFERED/DECREASED

District-wide wastewater facility and reticulation renewals

Reduced funding by $1.4m

Delayed stormwater projects

Savings of $4m

Includes projects at Borck Creek, and Headingly Lane to the Waimea Estuary. Also delayed three minor stormwater growth projects in Motueka, Wakefield and Brightwater.

Less renewal and upgrade work on footpaths and new residential greenways

Savings of $0.5m

Water supply reticulation and facility improvements and renewals

Reduction of $9m

Impacts Dovedale, Redwood and the urban water schemes (Richmond, Brightwater, Wakefield, Māpua, Ruby Bay).

Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) survey technology and computer equipment replacement

Reduced budgets by $400,000

Motueka Service Centre

Removed the capital upgrade works budget of $300,000.

PROJECTS ADDED OR BUDGETS INCREASED

Motueka Wastewater Treatment Plant

$3.9m, includes $2.45m deferred from earlier years

Compliance improvements and improving wet weather resilience until the plant is replaced/relocated.

Tākaka Wastewater Treatment Plant

$2.25m budget increase

Compliance improvements and improving wet weather resilience until the plant is replaced/relocated.

Lower Queen Street Bridge

$9.35m brought forward into 2025/2026

Eighty Eight Valley water supply upgrades continuing

$1.5m budget increase

Motueka Aquatic Centre

$1m brought forward into 2025/2026

These projects will now be funded from Reserve and Community Facilities financial contributions:

• Purchasing land for a regional cemetery
• Developing a new bike skills park, located on land offered by Fonterra at 80 Motupipi Street, Tākaka.
• Completing the construction of Pou-whenua at the entrance to Moturoa and the installation of cultural interpretation boards at three locations around the island. This project is already underway with our iwi partners.
• Developing a new reserve at Paton Road, Richmond. Stage One will start in 2025/2026 and involves completing the design, constructing entranceways and paths, securing or removing old boardwalks and making the reserve safer.
• Provision for new, reactive projects in the Richmond Ward.