Corporate Planning

The Long Term Plan (LTP) is the most important opportunity for the public to influence Council’s funding priorities. The Long Term Plan outlines our activities and priorities for the next ten years, providing a long-term focus for decision-making. It explains how we will raise funding and what that funding will be spent on.

The Local Government Act 2002 (LGA) requires every council to produce a Long Term Plan. Under the Local Government Act, Long Term Plans must be reviewed every three years with full consultation with the public each time. The Long Term Plan incorporates a ten-year Financial Strategy and thirty-year Infrastructure Strategy, supplemented by defined service levels for each ‘activity’ Council delivers. These three elements are effectively the foundation for other parts of the plan, for example, capital projects, and funding requirements.

Long Term Plans

We prepare an Annual Plan every year (except the year the Long Term Plan is adopted). The Annual Plan sets out what the council plans to do in the next 12 months to move towards achieving the goals that were set in the Long Term Plan. These plans are adopted before the start of the financial year in July.

Each year Council needs to decide whether to formally consult with the public on the full Annual Plan, or whether to only consult on Council’s Fees and Charges (as required by the Local Government Act). Full formal consultation is required when the Annual Plan differs significantly to what was set out in the Long Term Plan.

Annual Plans

Our Annual Report is effectively our ‘report card’ or the way in which we are accountable to the community. We produce one every year, looking back on the financial year that has just finished.

It sets out what we have done in that year, why these things were done, how well we did them, what they cost and how they were paid for. It shows our overall financial position and performance.

Annual Report 2019-2020

The Long Term Plan, Annual Plan and Annual Report all include a series of government-prescribed benchmarks relating to income versus expenditure, rates, debt, cashflow and assets.

Results are shown over several years for each benchmark.