1% - Waikato District Council

18NAVIGATING THE FUTURE | WAIKATO DISTRICT COUNCILOurproposeddirectionNavigating the Future is about howwe respond to today’s challenges whileplanning for the future – our strategyto get to where we want to go and theactions we’ll take to get there.Strategic PrioritiesThe council has adopted the People, Economic and Energyprinciples to lead and guide our decision-making. Theseprinciples are particularly important as we weigh up what’sneeded, with what we can afford and our priorities; andaffordability is a key element in this plan, reflected in ourbudgets in Volume Two..People in partnershipPeople give this district its distinctive and vibrant character, thediversity and sense of community that make Waikato strong.We have to balance affordability alongside what we would like,what we need, providing choices for living and the amenitiesand services to support that, and create an environment todevelop industry and employment opportunities. Part of thisis working in partnership with the community to build on thestrengths of our many towns. Consultation and communityfeedback on the draft plan plays a valuable part in our decisionmakingand achieving the balance between wants and needsdistrict-wide.The council set a precedent when it signed the JointManagement Agreement with Waikato Tainui, which came outof the Crown settlement of the Waikato-Tainui river claim. Thispartnership is in line with the council’s priority to look at futureopportunities, to develop new partnerships and strengthenexisting ones; to recognise the diversity of the district whilebringing it together to build a vital community.A productive districtOur strong rural economy and the mining sector, underpinsour productivity. If we’re going to expand on this for thefuture, we need innovative thinking to remove barriers toindustry and encourage growth. Alongside this, we want toprotect our valuable productive rural land. The District Planhelps us balance this, with industrial development within setboundaries and ensures we don’t have unsustainable urbansprawl into rural areas.How the district develops – the roads, land use, location ofbusinesses and employment - influences people as to wherethey’re going to live. So our infrastructure, amenities andservices, leisure and recreation facilities should be the drawcardfor people, to encourage their investment in the district(more details in the groups of activities pages 47-103). This stillneeds to be balanced with economic reality, maintaining whatwe’ve got while making the most of growth opportunities.ENERGYECONOMYPEOPLEENERGYECONOMYPEOPLEPEOPLEENERGYECONOMYPeopleManaging affordabilityIncrease our partnerships and connections within thecommunity and with residents and ratepayer groups sothat what we provide is in line with what the communitywants and needs.Provide value and be prudent with our funding, whilestill providing the services and facilities the communityneeds and expects.EconomicEnabling economic developmentStimulate sustainable growth, promoting the district tobusiness and industry, generating jobs to support bothour current workforce and those we want to attractto live in the district. With the Waikato Expresswaybypassing Huntly and Ngaruawahia, it is important weincrease opportunities for people to find work locallyso that these towns will continue to thrive.In the next three years, we will develop initiatives toattract businesses to Waikato district, develop strongpartnerships and help business and industry leadersconnect to work together for their mutual benefit.Maintain the infrastructure we already have, in particularrecognising the extra 100 km of roads ($1million extrain basic maintenance costs per year) to be maintainedwhen the Waikato Expressway is completed.EnergyValuing natural resourcesWe want to manage the amount of wWe wantto manage the amount of water we take from theWaikato River, (in line with our commitment to comanagementof the river with Waikato-Tainui underthe Joint Management Agreement) and improve waterconservation and storage. Our programmes will allowfor better leak detection and also for higher drinkingwater quality (see the Water Group of Activitieson page 49). We will continue our water meteringprogramme and all new properties will have watermeters.We will be enforcing wastewater on-site treatment anddisposal requirements so that we can better protectour environment, as well as ensuring our wastewaterinfrastructure is well maintained or upgraded to meetcommunity requirements to protect public health.We also want to reduce the amount of solid wasteand rubbish going into our landfills, with our WasteManagement and Minimisation Plan dealing with betterrecycling of household waste, including green waste.(See page 23 and Sustainable Environment on page 72)