Primary Services

Cemeteries, public toilets and town maintenance

Why We Do It

Cemeteries
Council carries out cemetery activities, as required by statute, for the public good in those areas of the district where the service is not provided by others. The Burial and Cremation Act 1964 requires local authorities to provide cemeteries. The Minister of Health oversees the administration of the LGA.

Public toilets
Council provides public toilets for the benefit of public health.

Town maintenance
Through quality urban design and the provision and maintenance of tidy, safe and attractive streetscapes Council will contribute to a sense of pride in our communities and sense of place in our towns.

What Has Changed Since The LTCCP 2009/19?

Council will no longer be extending the Kaitaia cemetery as additional capacity has been created by realigning unused areas.

Council has determined that it is not responsible for shop front or under verandah lighting that may be required for security purposes. The planned toilet renewals at Houhora Heads, Kaimaumau, Waipapa Landing, Cobham Road, Broadwood, or Russell Esplanade have been deferred. However, Williams Road, Paihia public toilet has been upgraded ahead of schedule.

Council is transferring the $70,000 budget from the Melba Street toilets to construct a new toilet in Te Kao. It has been decided not to make any decisions on new toilets in Kaitaia until the Te Ahu centre is operational as this project contains a number of public toilets. This may obviate the need for new toilets in town.

Council is looking at the overall funding of toilets and is keen to introduce user pays in key locations. In particular, Paihia and the Kawakawa Hundertwasser toilets have been identified.

Council has added $10 to the Bay of Islands-Whangaroa Ward and $5 to the Te Hiku Ward rates to fund specific improvements to key communities to support tourism. These include local beach clean ups, Waitangi day clean ups and other services.

Priorities For 2011/12	What We Have / Haven't Achieved
Continuing to ensure that cemeteries and places of remembrance are well presented	Council have achieved this priority by successfully delivering agreed levels of services through the town maintenance contract, and by engaging a dedicated cemetery mowing operator.
Continuing to ensure that public toilets are clean, hygienic and functional	Council have achieved this priority by successfully delivering agreed levels of services through the town maintenance contract.
Developing an upgrade programme to improve the quality of the visitor experience along with the financial implications for inclusion in the LTP 2012/22	The upgrade programme has been successfully implemented and is reviewed and monitored on a monthly basis with the town maintenance contractor to ensure priorities are afforded to visitor's experience.
Continuing to clean and maintain town centres to ensure they are tidy, safe and attractive particularly for the visitors associated with the Rugby World Cup (RWC) and for the high number of cruise ships passengers expected	The positive feedback from stakeholders groups, visitors and participants to the RWC indicated that this has been achieved.
Working with Focus Paihia to determine how the new Paihia CBD targeted rate will be used	This has been achieved through Council working closely with Focus Paihia to achieve the desired outcomes for both organisations.

Future Issues / Challenges	Implications
Community expectations for higher levels of service must be managed along with Council's desire to minimise rate increases	Council is aware of the importance of places of remembrance to the community and would like to ensure they are always well maintained.
There are many committee run cemeteries within the district and over time fewer people will be interested in running them. If there is no local committee, Council will by default be required to maintain and manage burial records	There would need to be a significant increase in operational budgets to maintain the large number of committee run cemeteries in the district. Council does not want to increase rates to fund this and would close these cemeteries to burials and under take the minimum maintenance required.
Increasing operational costs (power, fuel, chemicals, labour and consumables)	Increasing costs of the community and town services contract has resulted in Council increasing operational budgets to continue to deliver the same level of service.
Community expectations for higher levels of service must be managed along with Council's desire to minimise rate increases	To deliver the high level of service being requested by some communities, Council has adopted a policy to enable the introduction of "user pays" for public toilets in key locations. Council has also increased the ward rate to fund specific improvements in key communities. This will support tourism such as Paihia beach and Waitangi day clean ups and to enable town services to be increased in response to extra visitors in our district.

Highlights of Performance

TPM = Total number of Performance Measures

Performance 2010/11 vs. 2011/12 - has improved

Statement of Service Performance

For CEMETERIES, PUBLIC TOILETS and TOWN MAINTENANCE the following pages detail:

Service performance information provides levels of service comparative results for 2010/11 and 2011/12 including achievements and issues.
Financial performance including comparisons against budget 2011/12.

FYI: Key symbols are used to identify each measure contributing to Community Outcomes. For more information on Community Outcomes see the Community Outcomes Diagram.