From our Chair: Annual Plan 2025/26 adopted
As governors for Waitaha/Canterbury, your regional council needs to strike a balance between what our communities and the environment need, our legislative responsibilities, and potential impacts on people's back pockets.
Our Annual Plan is an important tool that helps us do that, and it is informed by:
- community feedback and local knowledge
- expert staff who are specialists in their fields
- Councillors who connect to the communities that they represent.
I want to thank everyone who took the time to tell us what they thought about the draft Annual Plan/Tuhinga Hukihuki Mahere ā-Tau and for sharing their experiences and insights with us.
Your feedback was integral and helped us create this final Annual Plan – our budget and work programme for the 2025/26 year.
Craig Pauling, Chair, Environment Canterbury
Business as planned
This Annual Plan reflects what we planned to do in Year 2 of our Long-Term Plan 2024-34 across our three core services:
- Environmental Regulation and Protection
- Community Preparedness and Response to Hazards
- Public Transport.
Some of the mahi on our to-do list this year includes:
- Progressing the review of the Regional Coastal Environment Plan and working with our communities to protect priority habitats, and completing a refresh of the Canterbury Biodiversity Strategy.
- We are also investing $25 million a year, over the next 10 years, to boost river resilience and flood management across Waitaha. We have started work on the district-wide rate for river resilience in Waikirikiri/Selwyn, as agreed on in the Long-Term Plan. Soon, Council wants to explore what other district-wide rates might look like.
- Reviewing our public transport services and network with our Greater Christchurch partners. The focus will be on optimising the existing network and the preparation of an investment case and funding bid for the next National Land Transport Plan funding cycle (2027-30), to deliver the service improvements approved through the PT Futures programme.
What we heard and what we’ve done
Many of the things we asked for your feedback on resulted in changes that are now reflected in this Plan.
Darfield to Rolleston trial: We decided not to proceed with a proposed Darfield to Rolleston public transport trial; however, we did decide to increase service capacity for Route 85 (Rolleston to City direct) and Route 86 (Darfield to City direct).
Fare structure: We have also adopted a two-zone public transport fare structure, and we’re increasing support for our community vehicle trusts, which are an important service, especially for our rural communities.
Fees and charges: Council also approved changes to resource consent fees and charges. This means that our fees for consent processing will be clearer and more predictable for applicants and consent holders. It also means that the majority of costs relating to consenting will be carried by the user or consent applicant, rather than the broader community.
Your feedback helped us make these decisions. Together, they result in a rate rise of 5.8% for the 2025/26 year, which is down from the 15.5% rise that was proposed for the year in our Long-Term Plan 2024-34.
You can read a summary of what we heard from you as part of our draft Annual Plan conversations, and the decisions we have made as part of deliberations.
Moving forward in the face of change
Alongside developing our Annual Plan, we are taking every opportunity to advocate for the region amidst significant reforms and changes being made by central government.
Resource management system reforms, Local Government Act amendments, changes to legislation around Te Tiriti partnership and transport and infrastructure funding decisions all affect our communities and environment. And ultimately, this flows through to the work and budgets in future Annual and Long-Term Plans.
Our advocacy, alongside Te Uru Kahika (Regional and Unitary Councils Aotearoa) and our partners, helps us deliver the outcomes our community expects, in a way that considers the uniqueness of Waitaha.