Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) will not hold formal consultation on the 2025/2026 Annual Plan, following a narrow vote at yesterday’s (Thursday February 13) council meeting.

Every three years the council adopts a Long Term Plan (LTP) and in the two intervening years it prepares and adopts an Annual Plan, which sets out spending priorities and determines rates.

Normally there is also a public consultation period where members of the community can provide feedback on the Annual Plan in its draft form and - potentially - influence the final Annual Plan.

At yesterday’s meeting QLDC corporate services general manager Meghan Miller told councillors there was “no change” in the Annual Plan to the average rates increase of 13.5 percent signalled in the LTP, nor any change to the “level of service” provided by the council.

In addition to this, the LTP - which signalled three years of belt-tightening - was only approved in September last year, much later than usual, so full consultation was not necessary, she said.

Councillors had mixed feelings on the proposal to cut out formal consultation.

Councillor Esther Whitehead said she was “not comfortable taking away the formal process from the community”.

Deputy mayor Quentin Smith said he could understand the reasoning for skipping formal consultation but noted that “this is actually the last opportunity for this council to put a mark on the planning for the future”.

Other councillors, including Craig Ferguson and Cody Tucker, said the consultation process could bring “false hope” about additional spending that wasn’t realistic.

They supported the proposal to skip formal consultation, as did councillor Lyal Cocks, who said the council was still consulting in “lots of key areas”.

QLDC will still distribute an information booklet and run an awareness campaign on the 2025/2026 Annual Plan, Meghan said.

The community will be able to share general comments on online forum Let’s Talk but there will be no formal submissions or hearings.

Public consultation will take place in March on planned changes to user fees and charges for council facilities, which Meghan said must be increased to keep the average rates increase at 13.5 percent.

PHOTO: Wānaka App