1% - Waikato District Council

83SustainableCommunitiesWhat We DoStrategic focusTo support economic growth,rather than spatial growth,to enrich ourcommunities through employment,improved quality of life, rather thansimply encouraging population growth.Sustainable Communities is predominantly about addressing those socialand economic wellbeing’s that ensure “communities” are developedrather than just discrete sets of towns and villages. It’s about the provisionof leisure options and the protection of enduring communities.The activities included in this group are:Customer Delivery, Economic Development, Grants and Donations,Leisure Facilities (aquatic centres, libraries and parks and reserves),Emergency Management (civil defence and rural fire), CommunityFacilities (cemeteries, property, toilets, pensioner housing etc.)Our communities share many qualities and at the same time havediverse outlooks and characteristics. One of our roles is to help thesecommunities make the most of their strengths and to develop a senseof belonging and pride.In the broader picture, aiding future economic development and growthis fundamental for the council. We work closely with the WaikatoEnterprise Agency and neighbouring local authorities to help integratenew developments into the community. We also work with PrimaryFocus, which is the economic development agency for the NorthWaikato and an independent trust.Our growth is mainly focused on Te Kauwhata, Pokeno, Tamahere andTuakau. And while we’d like to see other areas such as Huntly andNgaruawahia grow, it is simply not affordable in the ten years this plancovers. We want to make sure we don’t try to have growth in multipleplaces and find it is unsustainable because of major investment ininfrastructure for growth that doesn’t eventuate. However, developmentwon’t go ahead if we don’t have the infrastructure. For example, ifthe planned water pipeline from Tuakau to the Watercare plant doesnot go ahead, development at Whangarata will not happen. This typeof investment is initially funded by the council, which then recoversthe amount from developers through development contributions asdevelopment actually happens. (See the Development ContributionsPolicy on page 84 in Volume Two).Many of our parks and reserves and facilities such as sports grounds arealso funded in part through development contributions. And communityand leisure facilities, such as our housing for the elderly, aquatic centresand libraries, parks and reserves, and cemeteries, have an important rolein the things that make up the fabric of our towns and villages.Locally, we provide grants and donations to help individual communitieswith their own initiatives, helping make activities and projects happenthrough active support and funding, working with local organisations.Since the draft plan, we have budgeted some additional grants as aresult of submissions (see under “What’s planned”).Residents also expect to be safe within their communities and our rolecovers a wide spectrum, from health and well-being to road safety,emergency management as well as crime prevention. We work with thepolice and the community to improve safety, including using closed circuitTV cameras through the Camera Trust.Civil defence and emergency management has taken on a much higherprofile in the past year for the public. For us, emergency managementis a core service and while earthquake risk is under the spotlight now,we also have to think about other risks, such as flooding. We work withHamilton City, Waipa, Waitomo and Otorohanga District Councils tocontribute to ensure we are prepared for emergency response andrecovery. We also have our own civil defence plan in place and take partin regular training exercises to test response capability. The cost for theCivil Defence Emergency Management Group will be part of a regionalrate from the Waikato Regional Council.Strategic Direction ContributionsPrimarySecondary