Kaipara District Council has adopted their Annual Report for 2022/2023. The report was unanimously adopted in the 25 October meeting.
The Annual Report is an independently audited document that Council produces to report on its progress in the previous financial year and measure its performance against the Annual Plan and Long Term Plan targets. The Annual Report for 2022/2023 reports against the second year of the Long Term Plan 2021/2031.
Kaipara District Council Mayor Craig Jepson noted significant milestones had been achieved this year, in spite of February’s extreme weather events and staffing shortages.
“Responding to the extreme weather events through Council’s role in Civil Defence and day-to-day operations, and then recovering from the impacts, subsumed a significant part of this year.
Our roading network took a major hit with the weather events, and the second part of this financial year has been focused on the short-term repairs needed to get the roads back on track and keep the district moving.”
Council still managed to complete $36 million of capital works, about the same level as the previous year. Work has continued to build the shared path network in Mangawhai and design kickstarted for the one in Dargaville – increasing connectivity and transport choices for our communities; opened stage one of the Kaihu Valley Trail to the public; renewed and upgraded parts of our wastewater and drinking water networks to improve water security and resilience; and constructed new public toilets across the district. Staff have also made further progress on the District Plan Review.
“It’s clear we will feel the impact of these events for many years to come, but we are getting on with it, as Kaipara has always done. We have faced significant challenges with these weather events, and completed a large body of capital work, distributed community funds, and looked to the future with planning alongside and I am proud of the work staff and our Council has achieved in this reporting period,” says Mayor Jepson.
Council’s external debt remained unchanged from last year at $44 million, consistent with the previous two years.
Other notes of importance include:
- Council’s cash and term deposits decreased by $5 million to $16 million as the additional storm damage had to be paid for. Roading damage to 30 June 2023 as a result of the storm is recovered 100 percent from New Zealand Transport Agency
- Establishment of the Kaipara District Mayoral Relief Fund and distribution of the donated $530,000 via 119 grants to individuals, families, community organisations, marae, and small businesses within the Kaipara District who suffered severe hardship or damage as a result of February’s weather events. A panel of KDC staff processed and reviewed applications, which came in from all over the district
- Distribution of $401,988.18 back to our communities through Community Grants, Mangawhai Endowment Lands Account (MELA) and Reserve Contributions Contestable Fund
- Customer service staff completed 56,287 interactions with customers via phone, e-mail, and face to face
- 689 building consents were processed, and 506 LIMS (across an average of four processing days).
The Annual Report will shortly be available to view on the Kaipara District Council website. An Annual Report summary will also be available one month from adoption of the Annual Report.
View the Council Meeting discussion and decision on the Kaipara District Council YouTube channel (1:17:52 minutes in).
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