The Waitaki District Council has reversed cuts made to the trust that operates Oamaru's recycling park.
As the council this week finalised its plans to consult on the draft 2016-17 annual plan in March and April, councillors returned the Waitaki Resource Recovery Trust to 2014-15 funding levels and agreed to review the grant during its next long-term plan process in two years' time.
Despite concerns from some at the council's extraordinary council meeting in Oamaru on Wednesday that, with the impending closure of the Oamaru landfill and a planned reconfiguration of the resource recovery park, the council's grant to the trust should not extend too far into the future, Cr Melanie Tavendale argued in favour of providing the trust with some certainty.
"We had them [the trust] at a $220,000 level which we slashed last year, which created issues,'' she said.
"I would like to make sure they do have a level of comfort that ... it's not going to disappear out of the blue like it did last year.''
The quarterly report of the Waitaki Resource Recovery Trust, received by the council at the beginning of February, stated the trust had been unable to meet cash depreciation commitments for asset replacement "and the continuance of these trends will eventually point to liquidation''.
As the council's $20,000 grant increase to the trust was to be funded from the waste reserve, it had no impact on rates.
At the meeting, councillors directed the council to consult on an average 0.19% rates increase for the district.
The starting point for the draft annual plan had been set at 0.13%, but the funding for work on the footpath at Warren St in Oamaru would come from the Oamaru amenity rate, thereby increasing the overall average rates increase.
An earlier change from a proposed $60,000 concrete vehicle-capable pedestrian bridge at Oamaru Creek to a $50,000 pedestrian-only timber suspension bridge did not have a significant impact on rates, a council spokeswoman said yesterday.
The council is only required to produce a consultation document if the proposed annual plan differs significantly from the long-term plan, and as the council's 2015-25 long-term plan forecast a 2.1% rates increase for the coming year, the council opted to distribute the document to Waitaki ratepayers at a cost of 30c per copy.
Public consultation begins on March 18 and closes on April 22; a day of hearings is scheduled for May 11 and the council is expected to make final decisions on the plan on June 8 and adopt the plan on June 22.
