Services at risk to keep lid on rates

central city and close the Davis Library at Pukenamu Queen’s Park for one week day.

Closing the library one day a week would save $43,000 annually and removing the baskets would save $93,000.

The council is recommending increasing community grant funding by $100,000, keeping rural rubbish dropoffs, keeping the Winter Gardens at Rotokawau Virginia Lake open, and retaining New Zealand Glassworks.

Closing the glassworks would save $192,000 a year, closing the drop-off sites would save $175,000 and closing the gardens would save $140,000.

Removing the extra $100,000 in grant funding would save each property $5.30 a year.

The draft document said the council had already decided on changes to reach around $1.5m in savings.

They included reducing budgets for trees, shrubs and annuals, reducing the number of new library books purchased, disestablishing the Youth Council and associated work programme, and reducing maintenance of premier parks.

To keep the rate rise to 10.6 per cent, $400,000 of council assets would need to be sold in the next financial year, saving $23 per property.

Over the entire long-term plan period, the council is proposing to sell $16m of assets.

Tripe said it was about looking at assets that were not strategically important or had a low return.

“There are certainly some that don’t fit that category but we need to do an audit of what we’ve got.

“It’s too early to say [what they are] at the moment because we need some criteria around what we sell and what we don’t.

“We’ll do some analysis of the lay of the land — literally — and see what pops out.”

He said of the 10.6 per cent increase, 2.4 per cent would be for the council’s new urban kerbside recycling service which is due to start on July 1.

The council is proposing a targeted rate for the service, which will apply to all residential households in the serviced areas of Whanganui city, Mowhanau, Marybank and Fordell.

It is set to cost $143.20 per separately used or inhabited part of a rating unit for the 2024/25 year.

“If you took that out, we would be one of the lowest [rate increases] in the country,” Tripe said.

Consultation on the long-term plan runs from April 2 until May 2, followed by hearings on May 14-16, with the council making decisions on May 28-29.