Mayor's Message 18 November 2024

Greetings,

I am often asked about whether there is a disparity between what we spend in Dargaville and Mangawhai, our two largest towns in Kaipara. Earlier this month I met with a group of Dargaville business owners and we talked about that.

Taking a balanced view across the district does not mean we spend the same amount of money in every ward. We need to look at the needs, the opportunities, and what funding is available to be able to make decisions.

Which is why, over the next three years we have planned to spend more on capital projects in Mangawhai than in Dargaville. There is important context to that.

Currently there is a much higher rate of growth in Mangawhai than in Dargaville, especially around the outer edges of Mangawhai. It hasn’t always been that way. In the past Dargaville was the biggest town in the district and so most of council spending on infrastructure, parks and libraries was invested there.

With growth comes greater need. When a town grows, the facilities and infrastructure need to keep up. Fifteen years ago Mangawhai was a seaside bach town with basic facilities. Now we are in catch-up mode to add footpaths in high traffic areas, parks, stormwater, public toilets and expand the wastewater system so that infrastructure can keep pace with population growth.

You’ll be aware we have just partially staffed the Mangawhai library, which is something Dargaville has had for years.

When a town is developed, developers must make a contribution to reserves and infrastructure. Contributions must be spent predominantly in the area they are raised to meet the needs of the growth – that’s how we had funding to purchase the land for Urlich Park. The money used had to be spent on reserves in the Mangawhai area. Development contributions have also been supporting much-needed infrastructure improvements in Mangawhai. Recently Dargaville hasn’t had as much growth but it is coming.

I know some believe Dargaville ratepayers are funding growth and new infrastructure in Mangawhai. That’s not true – in fact it’s the opposite. The reality is that higher property values and higher population means a greater proportion of our rates are raised in Mangawhai.

Our towns are at different stages of the infrastructure lifecycle. When a town grows we need to provide new, additional services. In Dargaville we are looking to replace aging infrastructure – increasing resilience of what we have. We spend more on maintaining facilities in Dargaville, like replacing pipes, maintaining wastewater ponds than we do in Mangawhai. These things are much less visible.

There are some great future opportunities for Kaipara, and especially Dargaville, that have benefited the area and will continue to benefit locals in the future. 

We access government funding for many of our projects. Over the last five years government funding has supported the following projects:

Kaipara Kai; sealing 10km of Pouto Road and remediating unsealed roads; three wharves – Dargaville and Pahi wharf pontoon and wharf upgrades, and the new wharf at Pouto; public toilets in Pahi, Baylys Beach, Maungaturoto, Taharoa Domain, Mangawhai to name a few; Baylys Beach boardwalk and boardwalk extension; first stage of the Kaihu Valley Trail; Mangawhai shared path; and a number of stopbanks and floodgates. Six projects to increase Dargaville storm resilience (Awakino railway embankment, Beach Road culvert, Dargaville wastewater treatment plant bund raising, Awakino River mouth cleaning, and Dargaville floodwall stopbank repairs). Council also contributed to some of these projects. Much of this investment has been to support the development and resilience of the western side of the district. 

With recent private plan changes accepted into the operative District Plan, and new developments proposed for Dargaville, more local funding will be available to fund recreation and infrastructure in the local areas.

The other opportunity I want to raise is contestable funding. In addition to our community grants, 10% of reserve contribution funding from across the district – up to a level of $200,000 per year – is contestable. That means community groups, organisations and initiatives can apply for it from anywhere in the district. It doesn’t matter where the reserve contributions have been collected from.  

Lastly I also want to speak on the Kauri Coast Community Pool, which some people have raised with me recently. It is owned and operated by Sport Northland, not KDC. Council supports Sport Northland with an annual pool grant (around $360,000+GST), paid from general rates collected across the whole district and is set to expire in June 2025. We will discuss a preferred future ownership model and funding options in an upcoming council meeting.

When elected members start in their roles they take a formal oath to serve Kaipara District as a whole and not simply serve the wards they were elected into. There are always tough decisions to make, and not everyone will agree with what we decide, but we do take that oath seriously and consider the entire district with every decision.

Mayor Craig Jepson
Kaipara District