Long Term Plan FAQs

Long-Term Plan (LTP) is a strategic document that outlines our activities and goals over the next 10 years. It explains the services and projects we aim to provide and how they will be funded, managed, and delivered.

While the Long-Term Plan covers our activities for the next 10-year period, it is reviewed every three years to give us the opportunity to engage with our communities and tweak our goals and plans accordingly.

The Long-Term Plan will affect everyone in the Waikato district so your views and opinions matter.

On 28 February 2024, Council agreed to defer the 2024-2034 Long-Term Plan by 12 months, opting instead to prepare an 'enhanced annual plan' for the 2024/25 financial year. This approach provides more time to address immediate challenges in our district, particularly concerning water infrastructure, Waka Kotahi funding, affordability, and QV rates revaluation timelines. 

The 2024/25 Annual Plan outlines our activities, projects, and programs for the next year while we refine our Long-Term Plan. It includes a number of things normally in an LTP and we are required to consult on it which is different to a ‘normal’ Annual Plan, where we would only consult if there were significant changes to our Long-Term Plan programme for that year. 

Delaying the Long-Term Plan allows more time for us to engage with our communities about the services, activities, and projects we will deliver and their associated costs, particularly in years two and three of the plan. 

Yes. The 2024/25 Annual Plan can’t be adopted until it has been consulted on with you. Consultation for the Annual Plan will take place between 25 March 2024 and 26 April 2024.

The Annual Plan document includes proposals we want your feedback on, as well as information on projects and important matters.

Your feedback will help in our decision-making. We will provide information closer to the consultation period to have your say.

Waikato District Council will invite feedback from anyone interested in having a say on what should be included in the 2024/25 Annual Plan. Feedback can be sent to council from 25 March 2024 until 26 April 2024. Feedback can be submitted online or via post or email.

As part of an open and transparent consultation process, all feedback is treated as a public document once received. 

A property revaluation is currently underway with QV expected to release data by 8 May 2024. Unfortunately, this timing isn’t ideal for our ratepayers as we will have already consulted on the 2024/25 Annual Plan based on current property values. This will make the information ratepayers can find in our Rate Information Database (RID) quickly out of date in relation to the 2024/25 financial year. However, delaying our 2024-2034 LTP by 12 months allows our data to be accurate for subsequent years.

Deferring the Long Term Plan by 12 months allows us more time to gain a better certainty about the government’s next steps regarding initiatives such as ‘Local Water Done well. This aligns our planning with broader government objectives.

After the consultation period has closed, the council will deliberate on all the feedback it has received and make decisions about the Annual Plan’s content. The final 2024/25 Annual Plan is scheduled for formal adoption on 25 June 2024, and will come into effect on 1 July - the start of the 2024/25 financial year.

At the end of each council year, councils are required to prepare detailed annual reports covering their financial and operational performance for the previous 12 months. These are subject to independent audit by the Office of the Auditor-General. They are public documents adopted at open council meetings and are published on council websites within a few months of the end of each financial year.