Southern councils suffer setback in partnership plan to deliver water services
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The Clutha District Council is on track to partner with local councils to deliver water services - if updated figures still stack up - despite one backing out.
Councils have until early September to submit plans to the Department of Internal Affairs for delivering water services.
Four southern councils have worked towards a jointly owned, council-controlled organisation - the Southern Water Done Well model.
On Tuesday, the Waitaki District Council did a surprise u-turn, leaving the partnership and instead opting to manage its services inhouse for at least two years.
The remaining district councils - Gore, Central Otago and Clutha - have scrambled to work out what they would do, with all of them due to adopt their new water services delivery model within seven days of Waitaki's vote.
On Thursday, the Clutha District Council received quick modelling that suggested the councils involved would still garner reasonable savings by remaining with the partnership, but more detailed analysis was warranted.
Councillors faced two main options during their meeting:
They voted to stick with the partnership model, but the result was far from unanimous, and many voiced their reluctance, disappointment and frustrations with the process, the options and the short timeframe.
Others raised concerns about losing local control or voice over its water services, no longer having economy of scale now Waitaki had backed out or going against public opinion.
Almost 400 submissions were received, when the council went out for consultation, with more than three quarters supporting an inhouse approach.
Clutha District Mayor Bryan Cadogan said he would have preferred not to vote for any of the options on the table, as none of them provided the relief he wanted for ratepayers.
"There is no 'El Dorado' here," he said. "We're picking the best of some bad options.
"I've not only been frustrated, I have been sickened by the structure and the obscene timeframes that we've been shackled to. These are the cards we have been dealt."
New water rules had heaped pressure on them in recent years, particularly the number of rural water schemes that were now subject to drinking-water standards, Cadogan said.
"In five years, this beautiful council of ours has been dragged... unmercifully to about $100 million of debt and ungodly rate rises.
"That is the inhouse scenario. without the slight shielding umbrella that a [council-controlled organisation] gives and some of you say you want more of that. We can't take more."
Chief executive Steve Hill said the updated modelling suggested that councils could still save money and ratepayers would likely be financially better off, if they stayed with the partnership, but he acknowledged the savings would be lower with the Waitaki District Council's exit and more work was needed for more detailed figures.
The Department of Internal Affairs told councillors that its initial assessment suggested shifting to a three council collaboration was "likely to be OK", based on the work the councils had already done, but it could not give the same level of assurance or confidence, if they chose an inhouse model.
Council would be assessed on the plan received in September and councils could face intervention, if they did not submit a financially sustainable, longer-term plan, the department said.
If a Crown specialist was put in place, the council would lose control over its own destiny to deliver water services and would face more scrutiny over its finances, as the specialist would look at different funding avenues to develop a sustainable plan.
The aim is to have the updated analysis on the advantages and disadvantages of the jointly owned company ready for a Clutha District Council meeting early next month.
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