Long Term Plan 2027-2037
We're building our plan for the next 10 years.
A Long Term Plan, or LTP, is the 10 year plan every council in New Zealand must prepare. It sets out the services we deliver, the projects we fund, and how much it costs the people who live here and the people who pay rates here. We refresh it every three years, and that includes having conversations with the community before we put pen to paper.
We started conversations about the next 10 years in April this year through the Budget Challenge.
Share your views from 7 to 27 September
Libraries, footpaths, and the local economy – three of the things you told us you wanted to talk about as we plan for the next 10 years. Join the conversation and help to design the future of these services.
Design your ideal services with our easy online tool
You can also get a printed form by doing any of the following:
- download a printable PDF form
- collect a copy at any council service centre or library
- call us on 06 374 4080 or 06 376 0110 to have one mailed out to you
There are more conversations to come as we build the Long Term Plan. If you’d like to stay in the loop, download the Antenno app or follow our socials.
Key dates
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20 April - 31 May 2026
Round 1 of early engagement with the community - getting a picture of what matters most to our communities right now. -
Wednesday, 25 June 2026
Council meeting - public feedback is considered and discussed here. Live streaming on YouTube. -
August 2026
Feedback loop - the results of early engagement, and the discussions that followed, are shared with the community. -
7 to 25 September 2026
Round 2 of early engagement with the community - having focussed conversations about council services. -
October - December 2026
Data from early engagement is used to make decisions about council spending and services over the next 10 years. A draft 2027–37 Long Term Plan is prepared for public consultation. -
Early 2027
Public consultation - a more focused conversation asking questions about big issues and looking at all the options. -
Early 2027
Council meeting - consultation results are considered and discussed. -
Late June 2027
Council adopts the final Long Term Plan 2027-2037. The plan and all supporting documents are loaded to the council's website. -
2027
Feedback loop - the results of public consultation are shared with the community, as well as the decisions that followed and the next steps for the Long Term Plan.
Frequently asked questions
The Long Term Plan (LTP) is Tararua District Council's 10-year plan for the services, projects, and investment it will deliver from 2027 to 2037. It sets out how the Council plans to fund these activities, including what that means for rates, and provides a framework for decision-making over the decade. The Council is required by law to produce an LTP every three years.
Early engagement is an open conversation to gather your views before the draft plan is written.
Formal consultation, through something called the Special Consultative Procedure, happens after the draft LTP is prepared; this is likely to be early 2027.
At that stage, you can make a formal submission on specific proposals.
Both stages matter:
- Early engagement shapes what goes into the draft.
- Formal consultation shapes what is finalised.
The LTP Budget Challenge was an interactive online tool that let people explore the trade-offs involved in setting the Council's budget. Users could add or remove funding across the six service areas and see how their choices affected the overall budget. They could also rate whether Council is heading in the right strategic direction, and tell us what they thought Council should keep, start and stop doing.
Council funds a long list of services, the main ones are:
- Roads and Transport;
- Community Spaces and Support (including libraries, halls, public toilets, recreation areas and cemeteries);
- Looking After Our Environment (recycling, district planning, emergency management);
- Running the Council (governance and corporate functions, communications, customer service);
- Consents and Licensing (alcohol, food and health, building and resource consents); and
- Growing Our District (economic and community development).
Water services are transitioning to a separate organisation. See the Water Services question below for more information.
If you'd like to learn more about the services that council funds, and how we fund them, read our Annual Budget 2026/27.
Drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater services are being transferred from Tararua District Council to a new organisation called Waitī Waters. This is a Council-Controlled Organisation (CCO) that will manage these services across the wider Wairarapa-Tararua region.
The Council has to balance community expectations with financial sustainability. If demand for services exceeds what is affordable at an acceptable rates level, the Council will need to prioritise. This could mean deferring some projects, reducing service levels in lower-priority areas, or exploring borrowing and external funding. This is exactly the kind of trade-off the LTP process is designed to work through with the community.
Yes, in some cases we could reduce the level of service we provide. Some services are required by law and cannot be cut. When you engage in conversations about the Long Term Plan, your feedback helps us understand which services the community considers essential, and where people would accept lower service levels if it could mean lower rates.
Yes. Councillors rely on community feedback when making decisions.
They see what people say, both individual feedback and overall trends, and use that to guide their decisions.
You can view the results of the most recent conversation about the Long Term Plan here: Community Engagement Results | Tararua District Council
The draft LTP will be shared in early 2027 through a formal community consultation. The final LTP is usually adopted around June.
When the final LTP is published, we will publish a summary of community feedback received during both early engagement and formal consultation and highlight how it shaped the Plan.