Whether they will take any notice of you is, of course, another matter, but at least it’s your opportunity to ensure that they can’t simply say, “no-one opposed any of our notions.”

According to the intro of the consultation document:-

“Our current overarching plan is the FutureKāpiti Long term plan 2015-35, which was adopted in 2015. The Council worked with the community to develop the long term plan and set the direction for Kāpiti to become a vibrant, diverse and thriving district. While the long term plan maps out our plans for the upcoming 20 years, we also need the flexibility to adjust the plan as circumstances require. To that end, each year we consider what’s set out in the long term plan for the coming year, and review it in light of any changes or developments that require us to adapt our planning. We did this last year for the second year of the long term plan, when we consulted on and then adopted our annual plan 2016/17.

“This consultation document summarises developments in the past two years and proposes some changes to our planning and budgets for the 2017/18 financial year – year three of our long term plan. This annual plan will set the level of rates for the 2017/18 financial year.

“The proposed average rates increase [is] 5.9% (including water rates), 1% above the 4.9% that was forecast two years ago in the FutureKāpiti Long term plan 2015–35.”

General Inflation for the 2016 calendar year was 1.3% according to the Reserve Bank.

What do you think of the ever-increasing impost?  More importantly, what do the mayor and councillors think of it?  It’s up to them to decide whether they simply give Dougherty what he wants to spend on what he wants, or give him the grilling he needs. Do they care?