654 days ago

Coast council faces ‘challenging’ year

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

From local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:

The West Coast Regional Council faces "another very challenging year," according to Risk and Assurance Committee chairman Frank Dooley.

The committee met on Tuesday for five-and-a-half hours as it received an update on the council's investment portfolio, got a closed door briefing on the draft 2022 annual report, endorsed a health and safety charter and teased out a schedule of workshops for the forthcoming annual plan.

The council also has received tens of millions of dollars for 'shovel ready' projects and other publicly funded infrastructure projects to clear and show progress on in the coming year.

Councillors workshopped the 2022 annual report for about three hours
and it will be adopted next week at the first formal council meeting of the year.

Dooley thanked council staff for their work to get it over the line and under pressure.

"It's really comforting to know we're going to be able to sign-off next week. I know it's six weeks behind our statutory deadline, but there's nothing we can do about it."

An earlier briefing by council investment portfolio advisers J B Were explained the rationale of having a diversified portfolio both domestically and internationally.

Dooley said the presentation was good from a risk perspective and explained the benefits of a diversified portfolio, although the council had a responsibility "to keep oversight".

He had asked management to also present a profile of the council's liabilities in the coming months.

The council had previously been briefed mid-year on liabilities, currently $12.25m.

J B Were advisers told the council the focus was on spreading risk, over-riding the tendency for investors to just focus on returns, hence a diverse portfolio held by the council.

The past three years had been particularly challenging with inflationary pressure in the international and domestic economy but the portfolio had rendered a "reasonable" return of 11.5% in that period; the performance benchmark was 6%.

Returns should be better over the next year, advisers said.

In the past, the regional council has used the investment portfolio to subsidise its activities in lieu of rates — with the average drawdown, until two years ago, being $350,000 every six months, or $2.8m in total.

*Public interest journalism funded through NZ On Air

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Live Q&A: Garden maintenance with Crewcut

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This Wednesday, we're having another Neighbourly Q&A session. This time with John Bracewell from Crewcut.

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As a seasoned Crewcut franchisee, John is excited to answer your lawn and gardening questions. After years of perfecting the greens on the field, he's ready to share tips on how to knock your garden out of the park. Let's just say he’s as passionate about lush lawns as he is about a good game of cricket!

John is happy to answer questions about lawn mowing, tree/hedge trimming, tidying your garden, ride on mowing, you name it! He'll be online on Wednesday, 27th of November to answer them all.

Share your question below now ⬇️

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What are your thoughts on the best time to get your Christmas tree up?

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When should the tree go up? 🎄
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What's your favourite tomato recipe?

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Kia ora neighbours. We know your tomato plants are still growing, but we're looking ahead to the harvest already! If you've got a family recipe for tomatoes, we'd love to see it and maybe publish it in our magazine to share with our readers. Send your recipe to mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, and if we use it in the mag, you will receive a free copy of our February 2025 issue.

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