Every three years, Councils around the country are required to review and update their 10-year Long Term Plans (LTPs), which sets out what they propose spending on over the coming decade (and where the money will come from), based on the community’s desired outcomes. Christchurch City Council is currently consulting on its draft LTP for 2024-34, with submissions closing next Sunday 21st April, and there are certainly a few challenges in there when it comes to finding the necessary rates and other funding sources to make it all work…
One of the challenges faced is that various costs continue to go up in a big way, including inflation and interest rates. Then there are big-ticket items to pay for, such as the new Te Kaha stadium and “three waters” infrastructure. This means that rates are likely to jump by over 13% for the coming year, and over 7% the next year, before settling down to ~4% or less after that.
Over the coming decade, new transport facilities (roads, bridges, cycleways, bus lanes, etc) will make up about $1.5 billion of capital expenditure, with another $1.2 billion spent on operational activities like maintenance (there’s a cool dynamic “bubble” graphic webpage that shows you how the Council’s spend is broken up by projects).
So what are the implications for cycle-friendly networks in Christchurch? Well at face value, it looks like the remaining planned Major Cycle Routes and associated linking facilities are all programmed for the next 10 years, costing ~$200 million in total. Sounds good, but no doubt there will be plenty of people seeing things like halting “extravagant” cycleways as one way to cut some of their rates rise (not helped by some of our elected members stoking the fires with local community groups…). So it’s vital for lots of people to show their support for planned cycleways to ensure that they stay in the programme.
It’s not just the main cycleway projects that have benefits for cycling. Various slower speed neighbourhood programmes also provide for safer cycling environments, but these are currently under threat (to be debated at Council this Tuesday 16th), all on the basis of vague hints from our new Transport Minister. And various general transport projects also incorporate cycle facilities as well, such as the Wigram/Hayton intersection and Pages Rd bridge replacement and Te Kaha surrounding streets projects. So it’s important that you also make a point of supporting the inclusion of these other projects too.
The Pages Rd bridge replacement project also features a lot of useful cycle facilities
You’ve got until next Sunday 21st April to make a submission on the Chch LTP; this webpage has lots of useful background documents and information and you can fill in their online form right there. With the potential for a lot of pushback to the high planned rates rises, your submission is more important than ever…
PS: If you want an example of a handy submission guide for the LTP, have a look at this excellent one from Greater Ĺtautahi…
What do you think of the proposed Chch Long Term Plan?