He Kupu nā te Manukura - Mayor’s message

E ngā iwi puta noa i tō tatau rohe o Rotorua, tēnā tatau.

The world around us has changed and as a result our district will not look the same. Covid-19 has impacted us all, but in particular; the tourism, hospitality and retail sectors. A sustained effort by all is now required to build back confidence in our community and the economy.

We have developed a recovery plan –‘Rotorua build back better’– this is not just a plan about trying to recover but a plan that looks to build more resilience into our economy, our community. However, it does shift from our direction and the long-term vision for Rotorua.

Now is not the time for Council to retrench, or shut things down or hope that things will just get better, that would be really short sighted and only make the situation worse.

Understanding that we need to forge ahead and lead the district in its recovery, we too as a Council; as an organisation, have had a long hard look at how we do things and have revised our financial strategy to take into account the cost of implementing and funding the requirements for the coming financial year. We have a solid package to move us forward.

We will continue in our successful approach of partnering with Government, with business and iwi to look at ways to fund and deliver Rotorua’s recovery. They tell us we are on the right track. In addition, we have a major role to play as Council in standing our district up again. Our commitment to the recovery plan is reflected strongly in this budget as will be a longer view expressed through the development of the next long-term plan. In the coming financial year our efforts to recover will be witnessed through:

• Our continued delivery of essential services
• The delivery of existing projects to support recovery – recommence the 4 big projects
• Economic stimulus – new capital projects that will help stand up the district economy quickly and create ongoing employment opportunities; and the
• Housing strategy

This means if ever there was a time to act wisely, it’s now. That doesn’t mean ignoring what’s happening, it means striking the balance to keep ourselves and our people safe, and ensure we can keep providing services that act in a way that keeps our economy, local businesses and local people going. We need to ensure our resilience as a community and district and to ensure we can cushion the blow and position ourselves for recovery.

In reading this document you will see how 8 strategies devised to drive the development of our annual plan thinking are put into action, including a zero percent general rate increase and increases only in targeted rates to fund core infrastructure services like waste water, water and refuse collection.

There will be recovery, our role is to make sure it is as robust, as resilient and as quick as possible.

Tatau tatau – we together

Hon Steve Chadwick JP

Mayor of Rotorua