Rates affordability Debate

Community Wellbeing - Safety and Security

Option 3

Residents supporting Option 3 emphasize the importance of maintaining essential services such as water management, roads, waste, and public infrastructure to ensure community safety and security. They advocate for prioritizing budget cuts in non-essential areas like entertainment and arts, rather than compromising on critical services that affect daily living and community wellbeing. Additionally, there is a strong call for proactive planning to address future challenges such as sea level rise and increased flooding, ensuring that such plans are inclusive and considerate of all community members, not just the more affluent or vocal groups.

Table of comments:

Point No	Comment
35.1	Council was given a way to keep our rates reasonable and for us to have the three waters taken care of to keep us all safe and to ensure a clear process to affordability. Our council let us down.  However, Simeon Brown has stated that the three water management which is now council's responsibility will not increase rates.
172.1	Big service cuts need to be made only to specific areas - 'nice-to-haves' -e.g. cycleways, entertainment, arts, consultants; not to essentials such as roading, housing.
1124.1	Focus on core activities - Roads / Waste / Public grounds / buildings in their maintenance.
1324.1	Core service need to be maintained, and we need to have a plan in place for how the city is going to survive with the expected sea level rise and increased floods.  This needs to happen before plans are developed for revitalising the city.  What land will we have available, what areas will we need to retreat from?  Locking current and future ratepayers into the need to build bigger and better sea wall/defences is not the answer, and ignoring this issue until the future is also not acceptable.  This needs to be done with the community onside, and not just those that have more money or shout louder.