The Long-term Plan describes our work (or activity) and the broader results (or community outcomes) that are expected from doing this work. It has a strong financial focus showing the resources needed to deliver the work and the approach to ensure that resources are available. The LTP provides detailed activities for the first three years and less detail to year 10. Council reviews the detail of the LTP each financial year and adjusts it where needed. This is done via the Annual Plan process and is publicly consulted if the adjustments are significant.

It is done in consultation with the community with 100’s of people and organisations providing written submissions about the proposed work and how it is funded (e.g., we fund these activities through different funding sources, including rates).

The LTP process enables Council to look at all our activities and take a strategic perspective on how our services align with perceived priorities. The important decisions in the LTP process includes:

• Setting out our role regarding key issues and our partnerships
• What the key priorities are regarding those issues
• The service response and resource allocation (e.g., should we stop an activity, do more of the same activity, or a new activity)
• Our finance strategy, which sets out how we will fund services over the long term
• A 30-year Infrastructure Strategy focused on flood and drainage activity
• Key statements of service performance (i.e., activity measures and targets)

It’s important to note that the scope of the LTP process does not typically include the review of our other strategic documents or plans (e.g. Regional Policy Statement; Regional Plan Land and Water, Regional Pest Management Plan, Biodiversity Strategy, Transport Plans, etc). These other documents sit in the background informing Council and others about our direction, priorities and sometimes desired actions.

At an organisation-level the process also provides an opportunity to better integrate business (or activity) planning and co-ordinate resources.

The results of this decision-making are reflected in the LTP and it ultimately provides a basis for our accountability to you, our community.