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Local authority planning cycle
- Community outcomes
- Purpose
- Planning for the future
- Making it happen now
- Consultation
- Planning together
Goals without plans are simply dreams – they seem tangible and real for a short time and then they quickly evaporate leaving emptiness and confusion behind.
The Local Government Act 2002 (LGA 2002) provides two lofty goals for councils to achieve:
- to enable democratic local decision-making and action, on behalf of communities, and
- to promote the social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being of communities, in the present and for the future.
But without a robust planning process these goals will remain just dreams, and councils will be reduced to just collecting rates and rubbish.
Studies have shown that the most successful businesses plan well, both for the immediate future and the long-term. This principle also applies in the work of local authorities.
LGA 2002 requires councils to prepare both annual plans, and long-term community council plans (LTCCPs). In preparing both of these, there are processes for consulting with the community to determine what outcomes the community wants and what other organisations and groups can influence the identification and promotion of community outcomes.
Community outcomes
A vital part of planning so that the democratic- and community-focussed goals of LGA 2002 are achieved is consultation with the community to find out what their concerns, goals and aspirations are for their community.
Local authorities must, at least every six years, carry out a process to identify community outcomes for the immediate and long-term future of their region or district.
Purpose
They do this in order to find out:
- what are the key issues and challenges that affect the present and future social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of the community
- how communities want these to be addressed
- what are the priorities
- what is the relative importance of identified outcomes
- the scope, in order to measure progress
- how individuals and organisations can contribute in order to promote better coordination.
Having found out what outcomes the community wants to see, local authorities then use these to inform their planning and decision-making. They are not obliged to use every suggestion or answer every need, but robust planning to achieve the goals of LGA 2002 necessarily means that the main issues and aspirations are addressed.
Planning together
The five city and district councils on the Wellington side of the Rimutuka Hill, plus the Greater Wellington Regional Council, have developed the Wellington Regional Strategy – ‘working together building an internationally competitive Wellington’.
This provides a guide for how they will work together in the coming decade to build a region which is sustainably growing. “Clarity at the overview level will guide what goes into subsequent plans. The LTCCP is where we commit to doing particular things – other plans under legislation flow from them, e.g. transport, and district plans under the Resource Management Act,” says John Allard, corporate policy manager, Greater Wellington Council. The Wellington Regional Strategy includes the community outcomes process.
The Wellington Regional Strategy covers questions such as essential infrastructure needs. It identifies where growth should be. The Kapiti Coast, for example, has population growth but lacks the infrastructure. It is logical to encourage sustainable growth where other parts of the region have the infrastructure available but may not have the growth pressures.
Planning for the future
Long-term council community plans (LTCCPs) are what makes the difference
between dreams and reality. Every three years, local authorities, in
consultation with their communities, put together LTCCPs that describe
the goals of the council over the next ten years and how they plan to
achieve these.
The purpose of long-term plans is to:
- describe the community outcomes
- describe the council’s activities
- provide integrated decision-making and co-ordination of the resources
- provide a long-term focus
- provide a basis for accountability to the community
- provide an opportunity for participation by the public in decision-making processes on activities to be undertaken by the local authority.
Councils must use a special consultative procedure (see the articles on consultation) in adopting and amending these plans.
Long-term community plans on ‘what we are doing’ are revised every three years – community outcomes on ‘what we seek to achieve’ are revised at six-year intervals.
By 2006, LTCCPs need to have been adopted by all councils, and need to be related to community outcomes.
Making it happen now
In addition to the LTCCP, councils prepare an annual plan in each of the two years between LTCCP reviews. This sets out what the council is going to do in the next twelve months to come closer to achieving the stated goals. That is, the LTCCP deals with the long-term plans and the annual plan addresses the immediate future.
John Allard, corporate policy manager, Greater Wellington Council, says: “Annual plans are essentially an update of the long-term plan – taking account of current pressures such as interest-rate impacts on council revenue, flood impacts and so forth.”
The annual planning process also focuses on community consultation and on ‘providing integrated decision-making and co-ordination of resources of the local community’. Annual plans extend opportunities for participation by the public in decision-making processes, especially relating to costs and funding of activities to be undertaken by the local authority.
Consultation
Councils must consult with people who will or may be affected by these plans or by major changes. See the section on consultation for the special consultative process that councils must follow.
www.dia.govt.nz