Planning and budgeting
This section describes how councils set future directions and plan to raise funds to provide facilities, services and governance for the local community in the medium and short term.
The Local Government Act requires councils to develop formal Council Plans and Strategic Resource Plans to address the medium term needs of the community. The Act also requires each council to adopt an annual budget for each financial year.
Council Plans, Strategic Resource Plans and budgets must be available for public inspection at the council office.
See annual reports to see how councils report on the results of their Council Plans and budgets.
Council Plan
Each council is required to prepare and adopt a Council Plan by 30 June in the year following a general election (general elections will be conducted in November every four year from 2008). In some cases the Minister for Local Governement may extend the period within which a council may adopt its Council Plan.
A Council plan includes:
- The strategic objectives of the council
- Strategies for achieving those objectives over the next four years
- A Strategic Resource Plan
- Strategic indicators for monitoring the achievement of the objectives
Before adopting its Council Plan, a council must give public notice of its intention to adopt the plan and invte public submissions. Members of the public may make written submissions within 14 days of the notice and, if they so desire, request to be heard in support of their submission.
A council may review and update its Council Plan at any time, following the same process as for the original plan. At least once every year a council must consider whether the Council Plan requires any adjustment in respect to the remaining period of the plan. If a Council Plan is to be adjusted, the adjustments must also be subject to the public consultation process.
Strategic Resource Plan
The Strategic Resource Plan is part of the Council Plan. It describes the resources required to achieve the strategic objectives in the Council Plan.
Unlike the other material included in a Council Plan, however, a Strategic Resource Plan must always cover the resource needs for at least the next four years and must be adopted by 30 June each year. Therefore, councils generally prepare their Strategic Resource Plans on a rolling basis to cover at least the next 4 years.
A Strategic Resource Plan must include:
- Standard Statements describing the financial resources required for the next four financial years
- Statements describing the non-financial resources required for the next four financial years
Statements describing non-financial resources are not prescribed. However, they generally address future staffing requirements and may also address infrastructure and information technology needs.
Budget
A council must prepare a budget for each financial year and, unless granted an extension by the Minister for Local Government, must adopt its budget by 31 August each year.
The budget must include:
- The standard statements for the budget year (which are the Standard Income Statement, the Standard Balance Sheet, the Standard Cash Flow Statement and the Standard Statement of Capital Works
- A description of the activities and initiatives to be funded in the budget, and a statement of how those activities and initiatives will contribute to the strategic objectives in the Council Plan
- Separately identified Key Strategic Activities to be undertaken during the financial year and performance targets and measures in relation to each Key Strategic Activity (reported on in a performance statement in the annual report)
The budget must also include additional information relating to levels of council rates, impacts of council rates, and borrowings and debt.
Before adopting its budget, a council must give public notice of its intention to adopt the budget and invite public submissions. The notice must advise where copies of the proposed budget are available for inspection.
Members of the public may make written submissions within 14 days of the notice and, if they so desire, request to be heard in support of their submission. The council must allow a person to be heard and must take submissions into consideration.
If circumstances arise where there is a material change to the budget which affects the operations and position of the council, the council must prepare a revised budget. A revised budget must contain the same material as a budget and must also be subject to the community consultation process.
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