Long Term Plan submissions push past 1000
Submissions on Timaru District Council’s Long Term Plan have soared past 1000.
TDC spokesman Stephen Doran said this was the biggest response the council had ever received for such a process.
‘‘We did some things differently this time.’’
Doran said there were a number of big issues that had sparked interest in this year’s LTP.
They included the proposed creation of a multi-million dollar ‘‘heritage hub’’, introducing water metering to help pay for potential upgrades, and a host of upgrades of the district’s roading and stormwater infrastructure.
The council launched a wideranging information campaign for this year’s LTP. This included advertising on the Stuff website, regular communications on Facebook, buying out pages in community newspapers and posters at places such as the Timaru District Library and CBay aquatic centre. The council’s consultation website also proved popular.
It is expected to take a couple of days before the submissions would be loaded online.
‘‘We are very pleased with the level of consultation. The groundwork was laid in the last LTP in 2015, which received about 290 submissions. This time around there were a number of big talking points.’’
The cost of the consultation process is expected to be under $60,000.
‘‘In other words, it cost us about a dollar for each resident, which is pretty good going for such an extensive process.’’
Timaru District Mayor Damon Odey said the large number of submissions was a credit to staff and councillors getting the mess- age out.
‘‘We’ve been getting the message out on a number of fronts, whether it’s online, radio or in the paper,’’ Odey said.
‘‘I’ve visited nearly every secondary school in the district to let them know about it. We’re looking forward to receiving and reading every one of those submissions.’’
Once the submissions go online, staff will then begin the analysis and collating process.
The public hearings on the submissions have been set aside for April 30 to May 2.