Meeting the challenges
Improving lifestyles, taking Taranaki forward and supporting livelihoods are at the heart of everything we do, as we work towards our mission of a thriving and prosperous Taranaki. Our focus remains on working collaboratively with tangata whenua and our community to preserve our environment now and for future generations.
We work to make our mission a reality every day: restoring native habitats, checking the health of our rivers, supporting sustainable farming, promoting riparian planting, controlling predators and pest plants, providing public transport, maintaining the world-class Pukeiti, Tūpare and Hollard Gardens, monitoring rainfall, investing in Yarrow Stadium and much more. Figures from the 2021/22 financial year show efforts to safeguard our environment by working together with our community continued with the addition of 30 new comprehensive farm plans and 24 biodiversity plans prepared for Key Native Ecosystems. We provided more than 418,000 plants for land owners to plant along the region’s rivers and streams, meaning that some 4,631km of streams have now been planted – a rise of around 700km of riparian planting on the year before. We published a handy guide called Weedbusters Taranaki to help Taranaki folk root out rogue plants and carried out more than 660 property inspections to control pest plants. Our Taranaki Taku Tūranga Towards Predator-Free Taranaki programme continues to grow and support livelihoods with an additional 23,000ha in Ōpunake and Oeo added to the zone for controlling stoats, weasels and ferrets (mustelids).
To ensure we’re meeting our commitment as tuari (steward) of Taranaki and safeguarding people and resources from natural and other hazards, we monitor rivers, streams, wetlands and other habitats. We investigated nearly 600 environmental incidents in 2021/22 and carried out 1,600 dairy effluent compliance inspections.
It’s no fluke that Taranaki has a lifestyle that’s second to none in Aotearoa: our long-term investment in projects, amenities and services continues to improve lifestyles and contribute to the well-being of the 120,000 people who live in our region. Following a downturn caused by the Covid-19 restrictions, public transport usage is rebounding and there was a 40% rise in passengers using the South Taranaki to New Plymouth Connector Service.
Pukeiti, Tūpare and Hollard Gardens visitor numbers were also impacted by the pandemic and have started to recover with 110,000 visits. The redevelopment of Yarrow Stadium gathered pace with the demolition of the East Stand, the installation of international-quality hybrid turf and new LED lights and continued repair work on the West Stand.
The Council has recorded a surplus of $2.6m. This was significantly ahead of budget and strongly and favourably influenced by property and asset revaluations ($1.8m) and the non-commencement of expenditure on the Waitara River catchment (following enactment of the New Plymouth District Council (Waitara Lands) Act 2018) and the Kaitake Trail Te Ara a Ruhihiwerapini. Excluding these extraordinary influences, the budget ran close to plan, a pleasing result.
While the facts and figures show how the Council is making a tangible difference, a massive focus is planning for the future and ensuring we can meet the challenges that the reforms being rolled out by central Government will bring.
From Essential Freshwater to Three Waters to the replacement of the Resource Management Act to name but a few, change is a constant and will have a direct impact on how we deliver services to the community in the future. Some of these changes are already in place while many others will come into effect over the next few years and we are doing the hard yakka to ensure we’re ready. In 2021/22, we’ve focused on starting to implement the freshwater reforms but also laid the foundations for the future with work developing our Natural Resources Plan for Taranaki which will set the rules for how we look after freshwater, air and soil.
A key focus has been to improve how we work with Māori. A new Heads of Agreement with the eight iwi of Taranaki detailing how we can work together collaboratively to advance development of a new Natural Resources Plan and the move to introduce a Māori constituency for the 2022 local elections are just two of the ways in which we are creating a platform for a new improved working relationship in the future. The elections will also see change for Council with my decision and Deputy Chair Michael Joyce’s decision not to stand again. I have been on the Council for 22 years and been chair since 2007 while Michael has been on Council for 15 years. We also acknowledge the efforts and achievements of Council staff and all of our elected members over the last year.
A new Council will be elected in October to lead the organisation on the next stage of our journey.