Western Bay of Plenty rates are going up an average of 4.96 percent allowing for the collection of $54.78million in district rates in the 2014-15 year.

This equates to an average increase of 4.46 percent for ratepayers, depending on the services they receive, reports council.

Omokoroa Tennis Club's steering committee photographed in October last year in support of the courts at the Western Ave ground.

The increase includes an allowance for growth of 0.50 percent and inflation of 2.20 percent.

The rates were set when council today adopted its 2014/15 Annual Plan and is lower than the 6 per cent forecast in the 2012-2022 Long Term Plan, and 0.20 percent less than last year's increase of 5.16 percent.

This year's income of $54.78 million from rates takes into account the District Rate, Community Board Rates and Uniform Annual Charges and compares to $53 million collected in the 2013/14 year.

Council considered 371 submissions on the Draft Annual Plan and made some changes in response to submitters' concerns, reports council.

A significant change has been the decision to restore $200,000 to the roading budget.

The draft proposal to reduce the seal extension budget from $800,000 to $600,000 for this financial year was strongly opposed by the rural community. Putting this money back into the budget equates to a 0.32 percent increase in rates.

This has been slightly offset by the addition of $65,000 that had been tagged in the Draft Annual Plan for operational costs for the Katikati Heritage Museum. The closure of the museum removed the need for this money.

Council says although there are costs associated with Council taking responsibility for the protection, storage and cataloguing of the museum collection, these costs will be covered by the existing General Rates Reserve to remove the burden from ratepayers.

The most significant change to this year's Annual Plan is Council's proposal to move to a single charge for the district's five wastewater schemes, and a single charge for the three water schemes. This will take place over three-years.

The rationale for amalgamating charges is that services are the same for each ratepayer for water and wastewater, irrespective of where their property lies. This decision also means that future rates spikes for upgrades will be absorbed across all those people being serviced by the schemes.

Council says the decision to phase in these uniform charges over three years, rather than two, as was originally proposed, was made to reduce the impact on the affected ratepayers many of whom are on fixed incomes.

Mayor Ross Paterson says Council is in good financial stead mainly due to the long-term strategy that Council put in place in 2012 with the start of the Long Term Plan (2012-2022).

'The stability of Council's finances and our ability to push through the worst impacts of the economic downturn reflect strong budgetary control.

'Debt control remains a cornerstone of this Annual Plan. Our focus remains on debt management, minimising capital expenditure and ensuring the continued delivery of core services while restraining annual costs to the ratepayer,” says Ross.

'We are heading in to the 2014/15 year with confidence and the certainty of a significantly lower than forecast average rate rise.”

Council's forecast net debt lies at $139.9 million, down from $142.2 million in 2013/2014.

Council expects total costs in the 2014/15 year of $96.4 million, of which $61.3 million will be spent on maintaining existing assets and delivering required services.

Ross does say the lack of growth remains a concern and until it strengthens Council's income from financial contributions will be restricted.

'Despite an increase in building consents and an upturn in housing construction, the development of subdivisions in the Western Bay has actually decreased from last year due to the market taking up the surplus of land already subdivided.

'Consequently Council has revised its growth forecast down from 1% to 0.5% for the 2014/15 year.”

Council is continuing with the planned allocation of $700,000 from the General Rate and $300,000 from the Roading Rate to ensure interest costs on growth-related debt is met in the short term.

Other key decisions in this year's Annual Plan:

• $185,000 for the Omokoroa Sports Ground development with $115,000 allocated for two tennis courts and $50,000 for a skate park.
• $20,000 for Omokoroa Point School for the resurfacing of its community tennis courts
• $190,000 reallocated from a proposed toilet block on Queen Street, Te Puke to a skate park for the town.
• $100,000 to repaint pools at the Te Puke Pool complex - this will be recovered over five years from the targeted pool rate charged.
• $40,000 funding for the Te Puke Economic Development Group taking its annual funding to $130,000 (performance based) from the $90,000 proposed in the Draft Annual Plan.
• $10,000 for a Waihi Beach part-time public relations and marketing service to promote the beach as a tourist and holiday destination.
• $4,000 for the Tauranga Arts Festival.
• $8,400 annually for an extra week's professional lifeguard service at Bowentown, Pukehina and Maketu. Extension of the Surf Lifesaving New Zealand contract to three years.
• $10,000 to Tauranga Safe City.
• Changes have been made to the way services are provided for Civil Defence and Rural Fire responsibilities in Tauranga and Western Bay. These changes have added an additional $215,000 to Council's 2014/15 costs – Civil Defence $185,000 and Rural Fire $30,000.