The chairman of the expanded Dunedin City Council committee that will oversee the city's finances has warned "belt-tightening" is expected from both the council and the community during the next three years.
Cr Syd Brown was appointed last week to head the council's finance and strategy committee, which the newly-elected council voted should be merged with the economic development committee.
Asked for an update on how the merger was proceeding, Cr Brown said any project brought to the council's annual plan next year for approval would need to be "thoroughly scoped", and have proven benefits before the council would consider backing it.
"I'm not saying there will be no spending," Cr Brown said. But any initiative would need to be a "triple-A" project to be accepted.
Mayor Dave Cull campaigned on introducing a new era of financial prudence in Dunedin, and said last week the new council and committee would focus on initiatives aimed at boosting the city's economy and cutting council costs.
Cr Brown promised last week to look again at the timing of some aspects of the city's large capital projects.
Yesterday, he said the committee would also look at the grants the council provided to a variety of organisations.
Many were on a three-year contract, and those contracts would be honoured, but organisations that received grants would not have an "automatic right" of renewal.
Instead, grants would be reassessed at the end of their term to discover if they were still providing a benefit to the city.
Cr Brown said he realised the new regime at the council was likely to "cause ripples" in the community, so wanted to "get it out there as soon as possible".
The committee had a big workload, and he did not want to say which projects were being re-evaluated until it was ascertained whether savings could be made.
Cr Brown said councillors would also need to be disciplined in their approach, as it was important that any money that was saved did not then get spent on another project.
