The government is clear that legislation to revise the Local Government Act will abolish the four wellbeings and restore focus on local services and infrastructure.
Clearly, the impact assessment section of the consent will be unnecessary. The council should justify why their preference is for wetlands to filter wastewater when there is no scientific evidence water quality discharging into the Mataura River will change from that presently.
The council should address what is affordable for the district and who is paying. What is not affordable is a consenting cost of $1.5 million, or a worthless wetland in the upgraded disposal system intimated to cost $55m-$77m.
I call on the Gore District Council and councillors to rescind their decision pursuing the wastewater consent until it is clear what the new legislation looks like. Otherwise and predictably the consent will need amending, with that cost borne by long-suffering GDC ratepayers.
REPLY:
The council is legally required to submit a consent application, in accordance with the current rules and regulations, as discussed during the meeting.
While the government may introduce changes in the future, the council can submit a variation to the application if and when those changes occur. However, in the meantime there is a need to submit a consent application to allow us to continue to operate our wastewater treatment plants lawfully.
Wastewater funding?
Just a few weeks back in the Ensign it was reported of the huge debt of over $62 million that the Gore District Council had run up.
In the Ensign [September 11] there was write up on a wastewater review.
It was reported that an estimate to do an upgrade for Mataura and Gore was estimated to cost between $54m-$77m.
If the council had no money now, in fact they have over $62m less than nothing, where will the money come from to fund the wastewater proposal?
REPLY:
The council debt is not huge, it is in fact lower than a lot of other councils in the country. Hamilton City Council for example have borrowing of over $1 billion and their debt is close to 260% of their revenue. We are still within the limit of 175%.
The council’s current debt is $55 million compared to an asset base of $543m. If you liken it to the mortgage on a property this is only 10%.
There are definitely issues with affordability of our waters infrastructure — and that’s not just our wastewater treatment plant, but the whole waters capital programme will ultimately be unaffordable for this council. This is the case with many other councils around the country, which is why the government has introduced new legislation enabling the set up of new entities that will be able to access more borrowing.
Unfortunately, the legislation does not address the issue of affordability from a rates perspective, but we are exploring as many options as possible to land on the most affordable solution for our communities for the future. The council has to comply with the legislation as it stands, so if the community want to raise this issue further, we suggest contacting your local MP to ask for change.
