This month’s Tuesday Club meeting will be addressed by Sam MacDonald chair of the CCC Finance Committee and Pauline Cotter who was deputy mayor in the last council. They will take us through this year’s Annual Plan and answer questions from the floor.
Our meeting will be this Tuesday 24 March, and submissions are due by 27 March 2026. Here’s a link to the Plan https://letstalk.ccc.govt.nz/annualplan.
The council meeting was reported in the Press here https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/360946888/another-hit-christchurch-ratepayers-council-proposes-almost-8-rates-rise-and-wide-spread-fee where it was reported:
The draft budget received widespread support from councillors, but Yani Johanson was the only one to vote against it being approved and adopted for consultation.
After the meeting, Johanson said:
he voted against the draft plan because of the cost of the stadium on rates. The stadium, due to open in April, was contributing 1 percentage point to the rates increase.
I find this kind of voting disappointing. I understand that many of those who reside within the area represented by Yani Johansen will never go near the new Stadium but the time for this vote was a couple of years ago when a majority at the Council table decided to go ahead with the project. I happen to think eventually this white elephant will be seen as a major problem for the city.
Yani had fought and gained some concessions for his ward. This is great. But the Annual Plan is about more than your ward, it is taking ownership of the need to make a decision for the whole city, as a member of a team of councillors who hold this collective responsibility.
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