1% - Waikato District Council

73What We Doupdating. This covers all food for sale in New Zealand toensure food people buy, is safe to eat. Our role is to monitorall places which sell food to the public, to make sure they’recomplying with the law. Under the new legislation, whenpassed, this would mean they are registered and have afood control plan in place that they work to.Fundraising galas and sausage sizzles won’t be affected, orwould need to be registered as long as they don’t take placemore than 20 times a year. Those who sell food at farmers’markets might be affected, depending on how much riskthere is in the food for sale. More information is available atwww.foodsafety.govt.nz.• To provide for additional workload expected because of theabove legislative changes, we are establishing some new roles:• Environmental health officer, the cost to be partlyrecovered from fees, from 2013• Monitoring officer, to deal with the expected increase inconsents to be monitored from 2012/13• Land purchase, design and construction for a new dog poundat Tuakau. Budget $927,000. 2012/13 (the budget for thiscapital work can be found under Sustainable Communitieson page 57 in Volume Two)• There will be an additional animal control officerappointed, to be based in Ngaruawahia, because ourexisting staff are stretched to handle the high workloadin controlling dogs. This will be funded through increasedrevenue (more resources to pursue unpaid registrations)and through fewer staff number in the building quality area.2012/13• Three new animal control officers are proposed totransfer animal control in north Waikato in-house fromthe present contracted service. 2014/15• Rather than carrying out a broad review of the District Planat one time, we propose to review ‘hot spots’ so that we canimplement changes quickly and at a lower cost. These reviewsaim to remove red tape and make it as easy as possiblefor industry and development to take place in appropriatelocations while still protecting our environment.• We have reviewed the Earthquake-prone, Dangerousor Insanitary Buildings policy. This is done every five years.It can be found on page 133 in Volume Two.What’s not in the plan• Budgets to support increased consultation withthe community• Specific budgets for specialist input into developing spatialand structure plans• Budget to address proposed changes within the AlcoholReform Bill• Any provision for the amendment to the Building Act 2004,as we do not yet know what the changes will mean for theorganisation; if they will mean more or less workload, ormore consent monitoring.How this group contributes to the district’s wellbeingSociallyOur District Plan, monitoring of buildings and of theenvironment ensure both our urban and rural areas arewell-planned and maintained and healthy for sustainablecommunities.EconomicallyOur strategies and plans provide sound guidelines andstandards for existing and prospective investors as well asfor our local communities, encouraging economic growthto contribute to our district’s future success and well-being.EnvironmentallyMonitoring the environment to keep it unpolluted helps keepour community protected from adverse effects of noxiouselements, contributing to overall health and the environment’slong-term sustainability.CulturallyWe recognise other diverse cultural requirements whencarrying out our monitoring activitiesHow it’s funded35 %General rates19 %Targeted rates32 %Fees and charges10 %Internal Charges andOverheads Recovered4 %Other operating fundingOperating Funding– SustainableEnvironment