Nelson City Council

Download the 2010/11 Annual Report (2.8MB PDF)

Download the 2010/11 Annual Report Summary (2.5MB PDF)

You can also pick up a copy through Council’s customer service centre or phone +64 3 546 0200.

Audit NZ issued a clean (‘unmodified’) audit opinion after a very exacting process.

At the Council meeting to adopt the annual report on 13 October 2011, Councillor Mike Ward commented on how useful the Annual Report was to record just how much had been achieved.

He said it highlights to the community the huge amount of work Council staff delivered successfully and congratulated staff on what had been achieved.

From the Chief Executive

This Annual Report shows the Council’s net worth at the end of the year was $1.15 billion – a $45m increase from the previous year. The Council received a total income of $91m for the year, of which $51m was from rates. Spending totalled $76m. These numbers confirm Council has been taking every care with its financial management.

Financial Summary

See page 16 of the Annual Report Summary.

What was spent and did we do what we said we would?

Council recorded a surplus, before revaluations, for the year ending 30 June 2011 of $15.1m, which was $6.8m over budget.

This compares to a surplus of $17.6m in the year before, the 2009/10 financial year. The significant variations from budget are listed in Note 33 of the Annual Report. The most significant was the vested assets and development contributions, which were $4.1m over the budget of $7m.

The pie graph shows how much Council spent on its different activities. Council’s operating costs – what it actually spent – totalled $76.2m, compared to $79.5m that had been estimated at the beginning of the 2010/11 year.

Capital spending

iNvESTmENT iN bUiLdiNg ThE CiTy’S ASSETS

This graph shows the proportion of the capital budget that was spent over the last decade to build new city assets. each year, only a proportion of what was budgeted actually gets spent due to delays including bad weather during construction, unforeseen site conditions especially affecting underground services and consultation delays. Changes in scope, priority or a lack of required materials can also delay construction, causing projects not to be completed in the year for which they had originally been budgeted and some of the under spending was due to budgets being revised downwards to limit rates increases.

About your Council

Nelson City Council has a Mayor and 12 Councillors who employ the Chief Executive. The organisation has 260 staff in 225 full time equivalent positions to provide advice, implement Council’s decisions and look after its day to day operations. It is a unitary council, one of only six that are both regional and local authorities. The city owns assets totalling $1.22 billion including land, infrastructure and facilities – assets totalled $1.17 billion the year before. The Nelson City Council Group consists of Nelson City Council, its subsidiaries – Nelmac Ltd, the Nelson Civic Trust, The Bishop Suter Trust and the Nelson Regional Economic Development Agency – and associates and joint ventures.

How do YOU think Council has performed over the last year?

Council gathered feedback over the year through its annual surveys of residents and counter customers. Results of these are included in the Annual Report and the full survey reports are available on the website or on request. We also asked
some people who work with Council what they thought. This is what they said:

• “Council has been extremely supportive of House 44 in Stoke, not only with funding but also by representatives attending meetings and giving advice” - Jane Worthington, HOUSE 44
• “The standout for me over the past year has been Council showing leadership on some long term issues like sustainability – and its organisational delivery for the Rugby World Cup 2011 has been absolutely superior. Good on them for seizing the opportunities” - Dot Kettle, CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
• “Council has continued to strive to provide the best services to the Nelson community. Job well done, ladies and gents” - NELSON YOUTH COUNCILLOR, via txt
• “I think it’s done well. Just the whole skate park thing has been a little messy, that is to be expected with the nature of the issue” - NELSON YOUTH COUNCILLOR, via txt
• “Great to see over this last year an enthusiastic young Mayor showing great leadership in guiding the NCC into [being an] “Alive Nelson” with brilliant events other than the yearly usual. Patience and motivation will show business sustainability into the future." - Judi Billens, NGĀTI TAMA
• “Nelson City Council has done wonders. I know that when I get back from my Senior Citizens forums if I have a question or concern arising out of them I can ring NCC staff and I get a response and often a great outcome. They research my concern and get on with it!” - Ruby Aberhart, POSITIVE AGEING FORUM
• “The relationship with Māori continues to develop as evidenced in the partnership to welcome the Italians to Whakatu Marae and the memorial for the 28th Māori Battalion in Anzac Park. It’s great to see our mutual priorities reflected in Council work, kia ora.” - Ropata Taylor, WAKATU INCORPORATION

Working with Māori

Council’s relationships with Iwi Māori continued to go from strength to strength over the past year, with the updated Memorandum of Understanding with local iwi completed for each to ratify. Kotahitanga Hui provided the main forum for ’rangatira to rangatira’ discussions between Council and iwi leaders, supported by the office of the Kaihautū in Council. Other progress over the year on opportunities for Māori to be involved in Council decision making are summarised on page 25 of the Annual Report.

Greenhouse gas emissions

Council’s commitment to sustainability was first expressed in its 2008 Sustainability Policy. In October 2008 Council made the commitment to monitor and report on Council’s greenhouse gas emissions, assess opportunities for reductions and take action to achieve these reductions. The medium term target was to stabilise Council’s emissions by 2012. The greenhouse gas inventory has been carried out for the past four years including the 2010/11 financial year. Overall, emissions for the 2010/11 year increased by one percent compared with the previous year but are two percent lower than two years ago. See the Annual Report for the full summary.

The biggest contributor to Nelson City Council’s carbon footprint is electricity use, which contributes 85 percent of total carbon emissions. Council’s use of electricity increased overall between 2009/10 and 2010/11 by two percent or 185,000 kilowatts. The Trafalgar Park substation used almost 65,000 kilowatts more in the 2010/11 year than the previous year. The park was able to be used more this year, following construction work the year before, and also hosted several Super 12 rugby games. Data is also collected on water use as an indicator of the council’s environmental sustainability.

Water use in 2010/11 increased by 1,572m3, which was one percent higher than the previous year. More water was used at Trafalgar Park and Saxton Field due to increased use of these facilities compared with the previous year. Water use decreased at Nayland Pool for the last two years due to an ongoing leak resolution program. A new irrigation system installed at Isel Park has resulted in a significant decrease in water use there.

What Council delivered

The 12 months ending June 2011 signalled another very full year for Nelson City Council. Staff delivered the majority of what had been planned for the year, as well as responding to the additional demands of natural disasters, preparations for Rugby World Cup 2011 and adjusting to a new organisational structure, which came into effect from November 2010.

A record high number of submissions on the draft Annual Plan for 2011/12 meant extra work. And the triennial local government elections took place within the last year, resulting in a new Mayor and 12 Councillors including six new elected representatives.

On the financial front, Audit New Zealand issued an unmodified opinion that Council had complied with NZ generally accepted accounting practice (GAAP) and other requirements. See the Auditor’s Report in the Annual Report for their full opinion.

The main financial headlines include:

• Rates made up 56% of Council income – $51m of the total $91m – the rest came from sources such as fees, charges, rent and grants
• The net surplus before revaluations was $15.1m, which was $6.8m over budget
• Debt levels were $59.7m, compared to $51.1m the year before, 2009/10. Debt had been budgeted to be $104m, net of deposits. It was significantly less than budget mainly because of delayed capital projects, explained in Note 33 in the full Annual Report.

And more …

Major capital projects that Council began, progressed or completed over the year include:

• Founders Heritage Park stormwater upgrade project, stage II to reduce flooding risk
• Enner Glynn water supply renewals to address water pressure and pipe failures
• Point Rd, Monaco, water supply renewals to replace old asbestos cement pipes and ensure sufficient water flows
• Orphanage Creek combined stormwater and transport project to provide a culvert under Main Rd Stoke with a cycle way to Saxton Field
• Atawhai Drive combined transport, stormwater and sewer upgrade to improve its flood capacity and footpaths
• Seymour Ave combined transport and stormwater upgrade to bring the road infrastructure to an acceptable standard
• Weka St combined stormwater and sewer upgrade to renew wastewater pipes and install new stormwater pipes from Collingwood St to North Rd
• Greenmeadows development in Stoke to remove the old rubber bowling green, resurface the tennis courts, improve the car park, remove the Marsden Recreation Ground tennis courts and upgrade the Isel Park car park.

Just some of what Council did

Output results and totals for the year ended June 2011 show Council:

• assisted a monthly average of 6,627 people through the Customer Service Centre and answered 5,388 phone calls – an annual total of nearly 80,000 customers and 65,000 calls
• delivered 25 issues of Live Nelson, Council’s official information publication, to over 19,000 households every fortnight
• worked with 1,950 students from 69 classes and 15 schools to plant 13,500 trees in reserves and parks around the city
• assisted 540 residents to plant 16,800 trees at six community planting days: Botanical Hill, Glenduan Reserve, Hockey Reserve in the Brook Valley, Paremata Flats, Marsden House on the Railway Reserve and at Tahunanui Beach
• provided 4,000 households with Civil Defence bags and Get Ready Get Thru brochures, reaching around 10,400 Nelson residents
• issued 445 resource consents, 81 more than the previous year, with 3,648 hours of staff time on monitoring resource consents and activities permitted by the Nelson Resource Management Plan and issued 382 Land Information Memoranda (LIMs), 61 more than the previous year
• responded to 4,156 requests to investigate noise, dog, pollution, Bylaw and livestock issues
• ran the Saxton Stadium, which saw 212,000 visitors
• had 120,000 visits to the Riverside and Nayland swimming pools
• managed 200 community development contracts and administered funding for 74 community groups
• ran approximately 70 festivals and events, five exhibitions, and over 50 community programmes
• worked closely with around 15 government departments and 80 community groups regularly on community development alone
• welcomed 90,000 visitors to Founders Heritage Park
• facilitated the upgrade of 273 Nelson houses with heat pumps, and/or insulation and 95 solar hot water installations
• welcomed 3% more library visitors than the previous year with 413,490 people into the Elma Turner Library where the busiest day on 5 January 2011 had 2,301 through the door, 161,332 at Stoke Library and 27,783 at the Nightingale Library in Tahunanui
• boasted a library membership of 75%, among the highest in the country with 34,666 members in June 2011 of the current Nelson population projection of 45,500 – the national average is just over 50%.

Council controlled organisations

The Council Group includes the following Council controlled organisations (CCO), including the Port Company and Council controlled trading organisations (CCTO). Some are co-owned with Tasman District Council. The financial and performance results for all of these are included in the full Annual Report. Most CCO financial and performance targets were met.

Port Nelson Ltd 50% with TDC

CCTOs – Nelmac Ltd, Nelson Airport Ltd 50% with TDC, Tourism Nelson Ltd trading as Nelson Tasman

Tourism 50% with TDC, Stoke Heights (Ridgeways) Joint Venture

CCO s – Nelson Regional Economic Development Agency, Tasman Bays Heritage Trust (Nelson Provincial Museum) 50% with TDC and the Bishop Suter Trust that runs the Suter Art Gallery.