Wellington's mayor says making building cheaper through a one-stop shop for consents and fixing the failed Moa Point plant will be part of a three-year council plan.
On Tuesday morning, the council released a triennium plan for the first time in nearly a decade.
It outlined a range of policy ideas councillors were advocating to get done over the council term such as establishing an office that streamlined the building consent process, improving confidence in the council and fixing its ageing infrastructure.
Wellington mayor Andrew Little said an overwhelming majority of councillors and pou iwi had pledged to support the plan at a meeting next week.
Little said the plan's purpose was to align council staff with councillors' priorities.
Moa Point
A major element of the plan was the Moa Point sewage plant which Little admitted to RNZ was added to the plan recently.
"Moa Point has become a prominent issue for us just in a matter of the last few weeks and we have to address it."
One of the priorities of the council was supporting the region to negotiate a regional deal with the government after it missed a deadline to show interest in doing so, which Prime Minister Christopher Luxon described at the time as "pretty lame-o".
Little told RNZ it was possible funding for fixing the Moa Point sewage plant could be part of those negotiations.
"It might be something that goes on the table at the beginning."
He said he could not predict "what the prospects of that would be".
The mayor said generally it could be possible to get Crown funding for infrastructure through those negotiations.
Wellington mayor Andrew Little. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
Consents
As part of the plan the council would develop an urban development office which it described as similar to Auckland's Eke Panuku which was an organisation that supported development in the city.
Little told RNZ the idea would be that one person would take responsibility for a consent rather than builders being passed between several people.
"It is about trying to co-operate with applicants because, look, we want to get these developments done."
He said there was a large amount of support for the idea amongst councillors, so he believed once the plan was signed off it would not take "too long" before it worked through council.
The council would also set KPIs for building and resource consent timelines and review fees for consents in order to bring time and cost down.
Transparency
In a pre-election report released last year, it said less than a third of Wellingtonians surveyed had trust in the council.
In the introduction to the triennium plan, Little said "that must change".
He told RNZ transparency, particularly when a councillor or staff member made a mistake, was important.
"Most of these things are more you know, cock-up than conspiracy."
Little said he expected there to be fewer publicly excluded meetings around the council table.
"I am paying close attention to suggestions that something might be taken to publicly excluded and I want to be satisfied it genuinely is justified."
He said there was one situation where a councillor suggested a meeting be publicly excluded, which was rejected.
A spokesperson for the mayor confirmed it was relating to when councillor Diane Calvert was chairing a briefing which was made publicly excluded in December.
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