Mayor's Review: Council Meeting 29 January 2026

Kia ora tātou,

Council met on Wednesday 29 January for the first full meeting of 2026. There were a number of reports presented to Council.

After receiving an Independent Commissioners’ Report recommending that we approve Whakamaru Plan Change PPC5 – which relates to a Private Plan Change as part of a proposed new development, Council moved to approve the report. You can read the report here.

It’s crucial to note that this was an opportunity to consider the report, not newly introduced public opinion. That opportunity came during the public hearings held in November. It’s also important to note that Council had extremely limited legal discretion to depart from the Commissioners’ recommendation. Any challenges to the decision can now be made under the Resource Management Act, through an appeal to the Environment Court.

We also approved a separate Plan Change request from WaiTerra Estate Ltd, relating to land owned by the company in Putāruru.

Water services also featured in our discussions. Council adopted the legal terms of the Transfer Agreement with Waikato Waters Limited. The Chief Executive and I will be presenting the final suite of documents to Council at a future meeting.

After we transfer Water and Wastewater services and assets to the CCO, Council will continue to be responsible for Stormwater. We determined that a new bylaw should be prepared to ensure effective urban stormwater management systems are in place. This bylaw provide enforceable local rules to manage discharges and protect infrastructure in our District which we are currently lacking.

Council also discussed the Notices of Motions tabled at the meeting today.

• The first Notice of Motion was to repeal the Vexatious Complaints Policy. This was defeated at the table.
• The next one was to establish a standing Agenda Item for Members' Requests and Questions, and this passed.
• The third was to open all council workshops and meetings to the public, except where exclusion is legally required. This also passed.
• A fourth Notice of Motion was raised to change the meeting cycle for the Chief Executive Relationship Committee. As Mayor, I ruled it out of order based on a number of valid reasons.
• A fifth Notice of Motion regarding the management of Te Waihou Walkway, in light of the issues we have been seeing lately. Council voted to defer that conversation since there’s already workshop on this kaupapa taking place in February.

We were also presented with a number of reports for information, including the Financial report, the Forward Work programme for 2026 and a report on the social impacts of Gambling in our District.