Kawerau District Council is the first council in the Eastern Bay to set its rates for the coming year.

The council adopted its annual plan for the coming financial year at a meeting on Wednesday, June 26, setting an overall rates increase of 12.2 per cent.

This is a decrease of almost 3 percent on the 15.1 per cent increase that initially went out for consultation.

With 1.6 per cent of those reductions coming from the staffing budget, Mayor Faylene Tunui said she didn’t feel "savings” was the right word to describe the cuts as residents might notice a reduction in service.

She asked that residents keep in mind that the council would be understaffed, as that was what people asked for in submissions.

“Response times will be a lot different,” she said.

“We have responded to what was asked of us. We now need Kawerau to sit with us in this decision.”

Staff reductions including not establishing proposed new roles needed to maintain service levels and not filling existing vacancies in parks and reserves and events management.

Other cuts were made through alterations to depreciation funding, lowering interest rates by changing the timing of uplifting loans resulting in lower interest rates.

Not carrying out any further viability studies on an asbestos containment plant was also a saving.

“We did get some very strong views on this (through submissions from the public),” Mrs Tunui said.

A report from finance and corporate services general manager Lee-Anne Butler said the main contributor to the rates increase was inflation, which has impacted personnel costs, insurance, electricity, election and civil defence among others.

The council also set its fees and charges for the coming financial year, with most reflecting last year’s annual inflation rate of 4.7 per cent.

Kawerau Mayor Faylene Tunui warns response times from council staff may not be the same.

As part of central government’s repeal of the Water Services Act, council’s were given the transitional option of delaying the long-term plan for the 2024-2034 period until next year, when it is hoped that legislation that will have a large impact on their budgets will be clear.

Therefore, Kawerau council has adopted an annual plan this year and will adopt a long-term plan covering the 2025-2034 period next year.

Whakatāne District Council had expected to adopt its long-term plan on Thursday but was delayed due to not yet receiving approval from its auditors.

The council said this was because of increased workloads at Audit New Zealand caused by delaying auditing of draft plans for consultation as the Whakatāne council did.

This was another of the options provided by central government to help councils manage timeframes for long-term planning in the wake of the repeal of the water services reforms.

Ōpōtiki District Council has chosen a third option of delaying adopting its long-term plan until September 30.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.