Bay of Plenty Regional Council's successes over the past year are highlighted in its annual report; now adopted after the final council meeting for the triennium.



Regional Council group manager corporate services Brian Trott says much was achieved during the year and he is proud of the council's work.
'Our successes range from completing large capital projects such as stopbank restoration works, to being the first regional council to remove mangroves mechanically to ensure native habitat was preserved,” says Brian.
'We also made significant financial and time savings through our shareholding in BOPLASS (Bay of Plenty Local Authority Shared Services).
'We've responded to the flood events that hit our region hard and to tsunami that luckily did not hit.
'The numbers of bus passengers continues to rise, and the number of plants which volunteers have planted in the joint Coast Care programme reached nearly 100,000 for just one year.
'We haven't achieved everything we set out to do. We recognise we've set some challenging targets and we didn't always reach them.
'Sometimes our systems or technology let us down, or the local or national situation changed or we had to adapt to changed priorities.
'We also recognised that getting things right can be more important than meeting a deadline.
'We prepared our second generation Regional Policy Statement (RPS), but our desire to ‘get it right' meant we did not publicly notify this major document as scheduled.
'Instead we took time, put out a draft for feedback, worked with key stakeholders and made sure it accurately reflects the issues and solutions facing the significant natural resources in our region.”
The RPS has now been approved for public notification and consultation following the Local Government elections.
'We're confident the extra time we've taken to get this and other major projects right will save us and our ratepayers and citizens' time, effort and dollars in the future.”
The council recorded an operating surplus of $5.1 million this year compared with a budgeted surplus of $1.1 million. This is $4 million more than budgeted.
Revenue was $2 million more than budget and expenditure was $2 million less. The main contributing factors were the recognising of rating income and penalties from prior years ($1.7 million) and gains on the revaluation of investments ($1.3 million); and the deferring of some Rotorua Lakes Programme land use change projects while continuing to work towards an agreed approach.
Any surplus rates revenue and investment income would be transferred to reserves to reduce rates requirements in future years.
Auditors told council during the week that they were pleased to see improved financial reporting against budget and that the council had set up clear accountability in its report.
Auditor Ben Halford said the council had done a good job.
'The report was well structured, easy to read and informative,” says Ben.
'We have been happy with the audit process and had great cooperation from staff.
'The highlights report tells a great story and we were happy to give an unqualified approval.”
The Annual Report and separate summary document will be available publicly from mid October, either in print, or electronically at www.envbop.govt, CD or by email.