​Key outcomes from Ordinary Council meeting 16 December 2025

You can watch the recording of the meeting on Council’s YouTube channel.

Please note these are informal notes on the key outcomes from the meeting. The formal minutes and official record will be endorsed at the next council meeting.

Minutes and Committees – Council confirmed the minutes of the November council meeting.

Papers also included the regular reports from the Chief Executive and Mayor.

Public forum – The public speaker noted in the agenda did not attend.

Adoption of the 24/25 Annual Report – the adoption of the Annual Report was deferred until an Extra Ordinary meeting on 22 December.

Adoption of Governance Statement – the Statement is a collection of information about the processes that Council uses to engage with the district’s residents. It outlines how Council makes decisions and shows how residents can influence those processes. Now adopted, it can be found on the council website.

Adoption of Coast Community Board Terms of Reference – the CCB has considered and approved its draft Terms of Reference and council has now adopted these. Cr Wharewera noted that at the CCB meeting they are keen to understand the functions and role that the CCB has to feed into Long Term Plans and Annual Plans to best support Coast communities.

Significant Project Report – Wastewater Work Programme – this paper was received. The current Long Term Plan sets aside $36,000,000 of investment in the renewal and upgrade of the Ōpōtiki township wastewater reticulation, treatment and disposal. This represents a significant investment in critical infrastructure and there was a lot of discussion about changes to national legislation, other reform changes and how that investment is funded and spread of that spend. You can watch this from about 22:28 in the video.

Ōpōtiki township wharf jetty extension - The Long Term Plan has $450,000 allocated to the Ōpōtiki Township Wharf Jetty Extension and Otara River Play Equipment Relocation projects. The design for the Ōpōtiki Township Wharf Jetty Extension project has been completed and consent has been granted to proceed with construction. Through this process (before going to tender), advice is that the likely cost has escalated to $675,000. Most of that increase is due to increases in costs to wooden pier beams and fixing. Council adopted resolutions to proceed with the tender, with a cap of $450,000 to be noted in the tender documents. Once the tender process is completed, a report will be brought back to Council to confirm next steps.

Ōpōtiki township – Duke St Stopbank – Earlier this year, council submitted an application to the Regional Infrastructure Fund (via the Bay of Plenty Regional Council) to prevent rural floodwaters entering the Ōpōtiki urban area during a 1% AEP rainfall event by building an urban stopbank near Duke Street. Council has secured $1.38million in funding from the RIF and that funding will be received through a sub-loan with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. This paper agreed to proceed with the Ōpōtiki Township Duke St Stopbank Project and enter a sub-loan agreement with Bay of Plenty Regional Council.

Capital Works Programme – Advancing the reseals budget – council approved the advance of the full Year 3 reseal budget to Year 2 (bringing forward as much of the reseal programme as possible into the coming year to catch up on the programme and improve outcomes for longevity of local roads). Waka Kotahi NZTA are also providing funding to help bring forward this resealing programme.

Ōpōtiki Summer Festival Funding Applications – This paper provided the resolution from council that is required to accompany several funding applications (Aotearoa Gaming Trust, Lion Foundation, One Foundation). Several other funding providers (that do not need a resolution) and generous sponsorship will help provide funding to support the Ōpōtiki Summer Festival again this year. This is in addition to the $40,000 a year that council allocates to community events.

Draft Climate Strategy for Public Consultation - Council’s LTP community priority four ‘communities are resilient, raises awareness of climate change impacts and will undertake work to better understand the risks in order to be prepared, respond, and recover to climate-related impacts.’ Council endorsed the draft Climate Strategy for public consultation.

Council Schedule of Meetings – Council adopted the meeting schedule for the 2026 year. This does change from time to time so you can see an up-to-date meeting calendar on the council website and advertised in the Ōpōtiki News in advance of each meeting. Public excluded business – council confirmed in-committee meeting minutes from the November council meeting, minutes from a council workshop and a paper on harbour operations dredging.