Rubbish and Bluff Pool: thoughts sought

The Council is to undertake further consultation with the community about options for the Bluff Pool and Solid Waste Management services, Chief Executive Officer Richard King announced today.

Mr King said that since the adoption of Council’s Long Term Council Community Plan in June 2009 there had been significant community discussion on options for Council’s Pools and Solid Waste Management activities.

“Council wants to ensure that the services it provides meet, as far as possible, the needs of its communities.  By developing Draft Amendments to the LTCCP for these activities, Council can re-consult its communities on their preferred direction,” he said.

Mr King said that with respect to the Pools Activity, the Bluff Community Board had consulted its community and their preferred solution for swimming facilities in the town was to establish an independent Charitable Trust to own, maintain, enhance and operate the Bluff Swimming Pool.

“The Bluff Community Board has placed a proposal before the Invercargill City Council to enable this to proceed.  An opportunity needs to be provided for the public to make submissions on this option as well as the default position (pool closes at the end of the 2009/10 season),” he said.

Mr King said that the Long Term Council Community Plan had also identified that Council was working on a Southland-wide basis for solid waste collection services. 

“There has been significant community interest in the proposed change in the level of service – both in terms of the geographical areas to be covered and the service to be offered.  Because of this interest and the range of opinions held by the community, an opportunity for formal public consultation on levels of service for Solid Waste Management is appropriate,” he said.

“Council will conduct simultaneous consultation with the community on the Amendments to the LTCCP and the Draft 2010-11 Annual Plan because of the inter-relatedness of these activities.

“The Amendments to the LTCCP need to be adopted before June 30, 2010 to enable contract negotiations for the kerbside collection service to be completed. The Annual Plan must be adopted before June 30, 2010,” Mr King said. 

To enable the June 30 timeframe to be met the following timetable is proposed:

• March 17: Draft Amendments adopted for audit purposes.
• March 18 – April 9: Audit of Amendments.
• April 13: Extraordinary Council meeting to:
  (i) Adopt Amendments for consultation.
  (ii) Adopt Draft 2010-11 Annual Plan for consultation.
• April 15 – May 14: Submission period.
• May 25-26 Extraordinary Council meetings to:
  (i) Hear, discuss and decide submissions on Amendments to LTCCP.
  (ii) Hear and discuss submissions to the Draft Annual Plan.
• June 8: Extraordinary Council meeting at the conclusion of Community Services to:
  (i) Adopt Amendments (incorporating decisions on submissions) for Audit.
  (ii) Adopt the Mayor’s Report on submissions to the Draft Annual Plan.
• June 9 – June 24: Audit of Amendments.
• June 29: Scheduled Council meeting to:
  (i) Adopt Amendments to Long Term Council Community Plan.
  (ii) Adopt 2010-11 Annual Plan.