In an effort to help save their community from significant costs, the Maniototo Community Board has agreed to relinquish its delegation for water infrastructure and recommend a districtwide funding model be used.
Board chairman Barry Becker said Naseby was facing a costly drinking water upgrade to eliminate boil water notices and the Naseby Vision group had already asked for some kind of ''districtisation''.
Central Otago District Council chief executive Phil Melhopt asked each of the district's four community boards to consider relinquishing their delegations for water infrastructure and change how that infrastructure is funded. That change would see the costs of council-run water and wastewater schemes in the district averaged out and spread equally across all scheme users.
''Some towns stand to make some significant gains if they are rolled together; other towns stand to pay a little bit more,'' he told the Maniototo board this week.
The Roxburgh and Vincent community boards also agreed to relinquish their delegations.
Roxburgh only agreed to a district-wide funding model being adopted if existing debts and credits for water services in each area were added to the centralised account while the Vincent board made no decision about the funding. The Cromwell Community Board opted to leave the issue on the table and seek public consultation.
