News

What’s going on with our city centre carparking in New Plymouth has just started in Rotorua. Why don’t these councils talk to each other and learn from other Councils major mistakes ?

Click on the blue heading above to find out more.

Two consultations for the Significance and Engagement policies for the Council and for the Water Company (CCO) are currently open. These documents are the legal rules of how you will be engaged with – so you can “participate” in what the Council and the CCO will do on your behalf.

The NPDC belongs to an organisation using a global model for engagement.

Click on the blue heading above to find out more.

Would you like to tell the NPDC whether you agree with the rules they have put together with how and when they will engage with you ?

Are you happy NPDC staff are being trained to use community engagement methods by an International Organisation, with global practices your Council will use to engage with you?

Click on the blue heading above to find out how to have your say.

Would you like to tell the Water Company whether you agree with the rules they have put together with how and when they will engage with you ?

Click on the blue heading above to have your say.

Why is the Ratepayers Alliance, whose main concern is local government costs, efficiencies and transparency, looking at an issue like this one ?

What is happening with these data centres is flowing back into cost of living issues for homeowners. That is why we decided to put out information about this.

Click on the blue heading above to find out more.

A large part of the work that happens with Local Councils across the country, is presented by Council staff, and presented with a viewpoint of council staff. That view is not always in the best interest of ratepayers, or the overall community, and not always in line with what legislation allows for.

Click on the blue heading above to find out more, and see how you can help.

We can provide some good news to Ratepayers and Renters. The NPDC staff are fully focused on reducing costs and increasing efficiencies. Every department across the NPDC have been involved in discussions and proposals.

Click on the blue heading above to find out more.

There have been a few comments on Facebook pages that the $6.2M figure we use for Len Lye is for both the Len Lye Gallery and Govett Brewster, and, that the costs for both of these have come down and are now more like only $100k a week to run both ($5.2M a year).

On one front this was correct, on the other front it is worse than we thought,

Click on the blue heading above to find out what we mean.

Decisions were made to bring in a ban on offshore oil exploration, but there was no plan on how the country would transition. A newly formed industry group has spoken to the Hearld about their concerns.

Click on the blue heading above to read more.

We thought we’d said everything that needed to be said last week on our Facebook Page, after a Daily News story featured Sam Bennett’s opinion, and comments that we didn’t think were appropriate publicly.

Click on the blue heading above to see a copy of the 3 Facebook posts, and comments made to us from our supporters.

Those $1.4M steps - where so many people were unhappy about the enormous budget. Now there is a big issue with the quality of the build.

Click on the blue heading above to find out more.

We picked up the following story written by the Daily News from Sam Bennett's NPDC Facebook page.

Click on the blue heading above to find out more:

All questions have an open text box, so you can write what you would like to.

Just fill in one box with a few comments if that’s all you want to say, or have time for.

This closes at midnight on Tuesday 15th September.

Click on the blue heading above to find out more.

Adaptation plans in NZ have a habit of moving people away from their homes as the Councils (or insurance companies) decide it is no longer safe to live there because of Climate Change.

You may want to visit the NPDC website to see what is happening with these plans, and comment in the current Climate Change consultation.

Click on the blue heading above to find out more.

He needs the community to get behind him and show their support, so the 2027 Long Term Plan significantly reduces the Len Lye operating costs.

Click on the blue heading above to find out more and vote in our poll.

Both writers are supporters of art, and both writers talk about the community and ratepayers, caught up with the high costs of running Len Lye.

Click on the blue heading above to read more.

The vote was very tight.

Click on the blue heading above to find out who voted how, and why.

Climate Change plans with the NPDC are open for consultation and Alliance supporters have been invited to a presentation by the Climate Change team to go through their plans, and ask questions.

This is a first for Ratepayers. We have been asking to be part of the Stakeholder process, and we appreciate the offer to be included.

Click on the blue heading above to find our more and when the meeting is with the NPDC.

You may have noticed a number of people talking about the very large rates increases this year. People generally were expecting an average of a 4.9% increase – people were thinking some properties may see a 2% increase – some may see 8% or 9%.

The Alliance has been hearing from people who were getting increases from 10% to the worst case of a 42% increase. However basic anyone’s maths is – that is not an average of 4.9% across all ratepayers.

Click on the blue heading above to find out more.

The New Plymouth Ratepayers Alliance is one of the Alliance groups which falls under the Taxpayers Union Umbrella.

Click on the blue heading above to watch Jordan's entertaining speech.

The Single Transferrable Voting system (STV) the NPDC uses for Local Elections comes up for review every 3 years, and has started being discussed by New Plymouth Community Boards. The Mayor and Councillors will vote in the coming weeks about keeping STV, or considering a different option.

Click on the blue heading above to find out about our poll.