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Waipā District Council chief executive Garry Dyet commended staff and councillors for completing the long term plan, much of the work was done during the Covid-19 alert levels in 2020. The council initially proposed a 1.8 per cent rates increase but then the community wanted key projects added, so the final increase was 4.6 per cent for the first year of the 10-year plan. “We are living within our financial means and while the first year we have an increase in the mid 4 per cent, as we go through the whole 10-year period, it will average to 2.2 per cent,” Dyet said.