As with the 2019 Annual Plan, the Central Otago District Council will again be relying on changes made to legislation that allows for costly consultation on the Plan to be dispensed with as the Plan does not differ significantly from last year’s Long Term Plan predictions.
Draft budgets went to Council on 26 January and are being presented to community boards this month to approve for inclusion in Council’s Annual Plan 2022/23. Once approved the budgets will be incorporated into the final Annual Plan put to Council to adopt by the end of June.
As the Annual Plan does not contain any significant changes from what was signalled for Year 2 of the Long-term Plan (which was consulted on and attracted record levels of engagement in 2021) Council is not required to have a formal consultation process.
With no formal consultation on the cards, Council will instead take the opportunity to have a conversation with the community about how Long-term Plan projects are tracking, and let residents know what to expect in the 12 months ahead in terms of key projects and focus areas, said Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan.
“We took the same approach back in 2019, which was year 2 of our previous long-term plan. Being once again in this position, of not needing to consult, means we are producing robust 10-year plans as a council and delivering on them.”
Residents and ratepayers should keep an eye out for Council’s ‘How We’re Tracking’ campaign in April, with community updates on all Council communication channels – including the website, Facebook, Council’s quarterly newsletter The FlipSide and in the CODC Noticeboard published weekly in The News.
