Cats popular, budgets not so much

Wellington City Council’s budget for the next year is all but finalised, but cats were a far more popular source of public feedback than rates.

The annual plan, where the budget is being set, received just 351 submissions from the public.

In comparison, the Thorndon cycleway received seven times as many – 1067 through official council channels and 1368 from a separate Thorndon Community Group survey.

But serious matters like street layouts and council spending could not hold a candle to the Cat Owners of Wellington survey, which received a whopping 3170 responses.

Public feedback about cycleways and budgets has become a political football in meetings, where councillors have found themselves disputing the level of public support for projects.

Councillor Nı¯kau Wi Neera last week accused his colleague Tony Randle of ‘‘terminological inexactitude’’ by over-egging opposition to the council’s annual plan.

There was a similar dispute about the Thorndon cycleway, where Randle claimed 70% of submissions were opposed and Pouiwi Holden Hohaia claimed 70% of submissions were in favour.

In both situations the chairperson of the meeting told the councillors they should ‘‘agree to disagree’’ – but why were the numbers so hard to pin down?

The public support was murky because of alternative surveys, one about the budget from councillor Ray Chung with 86 responses and another about the Thorndon cycleway from the Thorndon Community Group.

The responses from the alternative surveys were separated out from the councilrun survey, because of the different questions – for example Chung’s asked whether the cycleways should be slowed down instead of the council’s more neutral questions about any feedback.

But whatever way you slice it, the stripped-back annual plan was not popular among the 351 people who did submit. On the council’s online form, 91 were opposed to the plan while just 39 were in support. The rates increase of 12.3%, $450 on average, was a focus for submitters.