Selwyn District Mayor Lydia Gliddon said rapid growth across the district reflected strong confidence in the area, but acknowledged the pressure it placed on infrastructure and council services.

New data showed Selwyn remained the fastest growing district in New Zealand.

Speaking to Chris Lynch Media, Gliddon said economic indicators remained strong.

“GDP is up 1.5% and employment is 4.2, so I think what that is saying is that actually there’s a lot of confidence in Selwyn,” Gliddon said.

“There’s always going to be challenges when you have the growth that we do.”

Gliddon said Selwyn had recorded a high number of building consents and council needed to ensure infrastructure was delivered at the right pace.

“It’s our job to make sure infrastructure is phased correctly for that.”

The mayor also suggested Selwyn’s growth could strengthen its position amid discussions around possible local government amalgamation.

“We’re going to be a city in our own right in the future,” Gliddon said.

“What we need to do is actually make decisions that set us up well for the future. It’s not actually today and tomorrow, it’s the 2050 outlook that’s important.”

The comments came as Selwyn District Council wrapped up annual plan deliberations, with council looking to reduce pressure on rates through a greater user pays approach.

Gliddon said one of the biggest trade offs involved shifting more services away from general rates funding.

“The biggest trade off is actually moving towards that user pays model,” she said.

Under the proposal, building consent applicants would fully cover the cost of processing their applications rather than having part of the service subsidised through rates.

“If you’re lodging a building consent, you entirely pay for the process of your building consent rather than the general rate offsetting some of that.”

Dog registration fees would also rise by $8, while some exercise classes would increase by around 60 cents.

Gliddon said community grant funding had also been tightened, although no grants had been removed.

“We haven’t got rid of any community grants. We’re just asking to try and deliver community outcomes in a different way.”

Council had instructed staff to complete modelling aimed at keeping the rates increase below 4.9%.

“What we are saying is it’s 4.5ish,” Gliddon said.

“That was really strong feedback from our community, was to get under that 4.9.”

She said the final number would be confirmed on 10 June.

However, Gliddon warned water charges would still add pressure to households.

“When you’re taking a weighted average for the water increases, you might be looking at around that 4% as well, so we could be sitting around that 7 to 8% for your total rates bill.”

The council has also established a grant fund to support Lincoln businesses affected by ongoing town centre works.

Gliddon said the construction disruption had become increasingly difficult for local businesses.

“We recognise that the project we have going on in the Lincoln Town Centre is very disruptive to business.”

The fund would not be automatically available to all businesses, with applicants needing to show financial impact from the works.

“You need to be able to prove that you have been affected by our works.”

On the issue of potential council amalgamation, Gliddon said feedback from residents centred around concerns about the short timeframe for proposals.

“The biggest thing I’m hearing from our people at the moment is that the timeframe is really short to get a proposal up,” she said.

At the same time, she believed the broad criteria could work in Selwyn’s favour.

“The proposal criteria is pretty loose and up for interpretation, which actually I think benefits us in a way.”

Gliddon said council was currently working through its communications plan and expected to provide more information to the community within weeks.