News

Some have been suggesting Act shouldn't be political and they shouldn't be endorsing Candidates for Local Elections.

Damon Fox points out you know he is endorsed by Act - nothing to hide - and if you don't like Act policies you know not to vote for him.

But other parties are they open about which Candidates are affiliated with them ? Not so much.

Click on the blue heading above to see what Damon Fox means.

We have an update about the Local Government Funding (LGFA) the NPDC uses for 95% of their borrowing. This is about the amount the proportion of rates income is, that has to be paid by New Plymouth Ratepayers as the guarantors on LGFA lending.

We don’t think you are going to like what we have to tell you – but please share this far and wide - so lots of people know how this works, and so lots of people understand why we need to vote for new Councillors who don’t want to keep using LGFA funding.

Click on the blue heading above to read the story.

What does “Urban Legend” mean:
“An urban legend is a modern form of folklore, often consisting of fictional stories that are spread by word of mouth and believed to be true, despite lacking evidence”

Click on the blue heading above to see what we mean by this with the NPDC

A recent media story was full of information that was not true.

Why do the NPDC and some in the media want to give us a bad name ?

Why do they want to influence the general public to not engage with what we have to say ?

Click on the blue heading to find out more.

Thanks to everyone who came to the T-Shirt Tuesday meeting on 5th August. We had a really good turnout.

The day wasn’t without some controversy – but the topic was also very important. A speech from the Alliance to the Elected officials about the new Procurement Strategy they were voting on that day.

Click on the blue heading above to read the story.

We keep talking about debt, which many ratepayers and renters say they are struggling with the effects of that now – in 2025.

One of our team had a look at how that plays out for all of us through the Long Term Plan.

Sadly, the big increases are not scheduled to stop in 2025, they will more than double - unless we vote for people who will change the Long Term Plan.

Click on the blue heading above to read the story.

People have been very unhappy with the message doing the rounds that a small group of businesses in New Plymouth will be seen to be given an advantage over others. Having a close look at the actual strategy this is only one thing to be concerned about, there is a whole lot more.

There’s an expression isn’t there – go woke go broke ?

Click on the blue heading above the read the story.

He didn’t give us a lot of notice. His registration had to be lodged by noon on 1st August – he announced his decision not to run with 2 days to spare.

We've put together a few thoughts on the legacy of Mayor Neil Holdom from a Ratepayers and Renters perspective.

Click on the blue heading above to read the story.

287 people in New Plymouth put in submissions for Local Water Done Well (LWDW). A clear majority of 61% people told the NPDC they wanted to keep an in-house structure to manage Local Water Done Well.

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The afternoon meeting last Tuesday at the NPDC was to put through voting by the Mayor and Councillors so rates bills could be sent out to all the Ratepayers – with the correct information and rates amount on them.

It was great to see many of our supporters at that meeting wearing our T-Shirts – with our “respect my rates” message.

Click on the blue heading above to read the story.

Over 61% of New Plymouth submitters asked for an in-house company structure for water with their submissions. What will the NPDC decide ?

Click on the blue heading above to read the story.

The Local Government Minister, Simon Watts, has announced new legislation will be in by the end of the year to refocus Council Spending. This was announced in his speech at the LGNZ conference last week.

Click on the blue heading above to read the story.

“An internal investigation into how the New Plymouth District Council has improved the way it manages its contractors three years on from a scathing audit report, has found significant shortcomings still exist in the organisation.” (Taranaki Daily News)

Click on the blue heading to read the story.

We saw a small piece in a news article that a consulting firm called Martin Jenkins had been working with Councils to prepare their documents to submit to the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) about Local Water Done Well.

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We have written about the Financial Competence at the NPDC a few times.

We have also recently written to a few agencies outside of New Plymouth with questions about competency.

Click on the blue heading above to find out more.

There is hope - if we get the right Mayor and Councillors sitting around our Council Table after the election - we could be as successful as Whanganui has been in keeping their rates increase down to 2.2%.

Click on the blue heading above to read the story.

Having just covered a story ourselves the previous day, about LGNZ mounting a campaign to use ratepayer income to counter the Taxpayers Union rates capping campaign, this was an interesting perspective for a candidate looking for our Vote as the next Mayor.

Click on the blue heading above to read the story.

Local Government NZ (LGNZ) is featuring in a few items of interest of late. Their annual conference is happening on the 16th – 17th July in Christchurch.

Just a refresher – we wrote a story about this group a few months ago. You would be forgiven for thinking something called Local Government NZ would be a government based organisation.

It’s not - it is a Private Business – and they invoice all the NZ Councils who belong every year. NPDC pays $90k per year to belong.

Click on the blue heading above to read the story.

We knew it cost a fair bit of Ratepayer income for the teams of staff at each Council in NZ to attend the LGNZ annual conference. This is on top of the Annual Fee the Ratepayers are paying.

Click on the blue heading above to read the story.

For anyone who couldn't be at our T-Shirt Day today, or if you wanted to know more about what we presented, the speeches are attached.

Kevin's Speech is attached with the photos and Sheridan's Speech with the words.

Around 90 people came to the Council meeting to hear what we had to say. The support was fantastic, thank you so much to everyone who managed to make it there today. It was so good to see so many T-Shirts on display.

Click on the blue heading above to see the speeches.

This morning we spoke to the Councillors about the submission we sent in about Local Water Done Well, along with 12 other people who wanted Councillors to hear their thoughts.

Our speech is attached for anyone who would like to have a read.