As another local body joins a group of councils sharing water services and operations, a southern mayor says "it is beyond him" how the biggest council in the South is not getting involved.
The Timaru District Council decided on Tuesday it would join the Southern Water Done Well Steering Group.
The four district councils which have joined to form the group are Gore, Central Otago, Waitaki and Clutha.
Waitaki District Mayor Gary Kircher, Clutha District Mayor Bryan Cadogan, Central Otago District Mayor Tamah Alley and Gore District Mayor Ben Bell spoke with Timaru district councillors before Tuesday’s council meeting.
Mr Cadogan said what was becoming patently obvious now was that remaining in collaborative discussions was proving to be beneficial for the councils involved.
"The councils in collaboration — Clutha, Central Otago,Waitaki, and Gore — are embracing the challenge laid down by central government," he said.
"While it’s continuing to be demanding, the common themes that we believe were there are now thankfully manifesting themselves — themes like every single council involved is better off collaborating rather than going alone, the efficiency and savings can only be explored after the trust in each other and the belief has been re-established.
"The true gems we are unearthing is in areas like staff retention and procurement, where it’s always been that the bigger the better."
He said it was still early days but the group was working hard to find the best possible outcome for ratepayers.
It was hard to work out why the Dunedin City Council was not getting involved with the group.
"What saddens me is that Dunedin could be contributing to these discussions, helping to frame the structure and lending its weight for the betterment of not only themselves but so many in the South.
"It’s beyond me how this is not happening."
Timaru District Mayor Nigel Bowen said he was looking forward to progressing the group's ideas and seeing how they fitted with the needs of the Timaru community.
“We face many challenges in providing high-quality water services to our community in the long term, not only financial ones,” he said.
”From this decision today, we get to join forces with a group of like-minded councils to consider how best we could work together to provide this critical infrastructure in a sustainable way.”
Mackenzie and Waimate district councils have also shown interest in joining the group.
