Latest news with #MelissaSadler-Futter
Scoop
5 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
South Wairarapa Plans To Spend Almost $30m On Water Infrastructure
South Wairarapa District Council is set to spend almost $30 million on capital water infrastructure projects in the next two years, with all to be delivered in-house until a new water services entity is established. Significant projects on the horizon for the council included upgrades to wastewater treatment plants in Greytown, Martinborough, and Featherston, pipe renewals, and capacity upgrades to enable growth. The council's Management Services Agreement with Wellington Water Limited was set to expire on June 30 but the council has voted to keep operational expenditure with the water management entity for another year and do its capital expenditure programme in-house. This vote was done in public exclusion and the report has recently been released. The report said the council would need to build a team to deliver South Wairarapa's full capital expenditure programme for at least the next two years, however, the proposed Wairarapa-Tararua entity could start as early as July 1, 2026. Over the first two years of the council's 2025-34 Long-Term Plan, its capital investment programme totalled $10.85m and $18.31m respectively, the report said. 'The expected benefits of us managing capital expenditure in-house are anticipated to be more cost control, cost efficiency, on-time delivery, local contractor delivery, and optimisation of the programme leading into the new entity in which our forward investment programme will be a factor for negotiations,' the report to council said. 'The risks are that there might be some delay while we source resourcing, and this may impact on relationships with the community and the regulator, but this should be able to be managed with proactive and comprehensive communications.' The report said the relationship between the council and Wellington Water had been 'fraught' and councillors had voted in public-exclusion in December to exit the relationship with Wellington Water on June 30, 2025. Councillors had instructed staff to explore options for interim arrangements, citing dissatisfaction with Wellington Water's performance. The report said the Local Water Done Well process had provided 'additional impetus to consider an early exit from Wellington Water by SWDC'. 'Earlier exit carries the potential for upside in terms of both improved levels of service in the short to medium term, and for being better prepared for the transition into the new entity, if well executed,' the report said. 'There are also risks to an earlier exit including being able to procure sufficient resources to replace Wellington Water and the distraction from the Local Water Done Well transition work that managing an early transition could cause.' In January, council chief executive Janice Smith and Deputy Mayor and Wellington Water Committee representative Melissa Sadler-Futter met with Wellington Water Board chair Nick Leggett and chief executive Pat Dougherty and gave them informal notice that the council intended to exit the relationship on June 30 but that this could be extended 'depending on practicality'. The report said council staff then requested information to assist with this transition but Wellington Water staff had been 'disappointingly' slow to respond, 'in part because our requests distract Wellington Water resources from other matters such as planning for the new Wellington Regional entity'. Initially, council staff were asked to look at a full-service external provider option taking both operational and capital expenditure away from Wellington Water but councillors voted at the end of April to take back capital projects only. At a Wellington Water Committee meeting on Friday, Dougherty said Wellington Water was working to transfer all capital projects back to the council by July 1 and was 'starting to get systems in place to look at how we transfer responsibilities for operations and maintenance by July 1, 2026'.
Scoop
17-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
South Wairarapa Locks In Key Decisions, 4.7% Rates Rise Likely
South Wairarapa District Council has locked in its Long-Term Plan options after deliberating on submissions, resulting in a preliminary total rates increase of 4.7% for the coming financial year. The council would adopt the final Long-Term Plan and budget on June 25. Deputy mayor Melissa Sadler-Futter said elected members and council staff had worked hard to limit the overall rates increase. She thanked the community for their input into submissions and hearings. During the council's Long-Term Plan consultation between March 7 and April 6, 218 full submissions and 600 signed letters with the same template were received, addressing six questions across three decision areas. At a Strategy Working Committee meeting on Wednesday, councillors agreed to maintain the proportion of uniform charge rates at 21%, instead of increasing to 28% as proposed in the consultation. Because the uniform charge is based on capital value, keeping it at 21% meant rates would be cheaper for a larger number of South Wairarapa properties but would continue to disproportionately affect properties with a higher capital value. The community feedback on this decision was described by council staff as 'even' with 92 'full submissions' in favour of 21% and 92 in favour of 28%, however the 600 signed letters were in favour of 28% and suggested the council should lift it to 30%. Councillors also agreed to maintain the current funding model for services and facilities based in the three main towns instead of introducing a district services rate as proposed in the consultation. A new and improved definition of Separately Used or Inhabitable Parts (SUIP) was agreed upon, which made it clear which dwellings would be excluded from extra charges. The refuse and recycling charge was also changed back to per rating unit instead of per SUIP. The next big decision was locking in the council's water operations budget at $6.05 million for the 2025-26 year. It was the cheapest option on the table and was supported by a majority of councillors. However councillor Rebecca Gray said it was not a responsible position for the council to take and wished the council would set the budget at $6.55m budget. Councillors Alistair Plimmer and Martin Bosley agreed with Gray. Regarding roading investment, the council locked in funding for the full Low Cost Low Risk roading improvements programme with an increased capital budget. Sadler-Futter said councillors had been 'very mindful of the impact of our decisions on ratepayers' pockets'. 'In the current economic climate, a rates increase of any size is something to carefully consider. We are all here for right reasons and our community is at the heart of those decisions we make.' The council decided not to fund a number of Memorandum of Understandings that were requested during the consultation, with many around the table concerned about making longer term commitments ahead of a new triennium. Instead, it was agreed to increase the annual community and youth grant budget from $120,000 to $200,000 for the 2025-26 year. 'We have a small amount of funding available to share across our district and in this environment, everyone should get a chance to apply for a contestable fund instead of committing to MOUs,' Sadler-Futter said. 'We are trying to balance keeping rate increases low and supporting the incredible work that our community delivers.' Requests from each of the community boards were giventhe green light, including the Martinborough Community Board's request to fence the small children's area at the Waihinga playground with funding from the Waihinga Reserve up to the balance of the reserve. This would not have an impact on rates. The council had also agreed to the Featherston Community Board's request to include the Featherston greenspace in the budget, and the Greytown Community Board's request to extend the Arbor Reserve in Greytown and delegate beautification to the Greytown Community Board. Councillor Aidan Ellims said these outcomes were a great example of community boards identifying projects that were meaningful to their communities that also had a low impact on the overall budget. – LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
Scoop
09-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
South Wairarapa Council Puts Its Faith In Wai+T Water Model
South Wairarapa is the first council to take the plunge into a proposed Wairarapa-Tararua water services entity, locking it in as its preferred option. All eyes are now on partner councils Masterton, Carterton, and Tararua to see whether they too will lock in the option. South Wairarapa deputy mayor Melissa Sadler-Futter said Local Water Done Well reform was a huge piece of work for the council and community. 'The next piece of action we will watch very carefully are the votes of our neighbours over the coming weeks.' South Wairarapa councillors were unanimously in favour of progressing the Wairarapa-Tararua council-controlled organisation, but this united front was unlikely to be seen at the table in Masterton where concerns around price standardisation were still being raised. Without standardisation, the Wairarapa-Tararua option was the cheapest for Masterton customers. With standardisation, it was more expensive than the 'Masterton-only' option. Although price standardisation was not a requirement of Local Water Done Well, some Masterton councillors have previously questioned what measures would be put in place to prevent it once the new entity was set up and whether these could be overridden by the entity's directors or the Commerce Commission. The Local Government (Water Services) Bill said councils can provide a statement of expectations to the water services entity, but 'the statement of expectations must not include any requirements or expectations that would compromise that financial independence'. It further said that 'if a water organisation receives a statement of expectations that is inconsistent with a direction or requirement imposed by a regulator, the regulatory direction or requirement prevails to the extent of the inconsistency.' The Commerce Commission, which would be the regulator, said it would be able to 'consider whether prices are efficient – for example, whether they appropriately signal the cost of service and support efficient demand management'. 'Generally, setting prices at a level that reflects local network costs is more efficient than harmonising prices across a water organisation. 'Once the Local Government (Water Services) Bill has been finalised and enacted the Commission will be able to make related decisions.' The Commerce Commission's water implementation director presented to Masterton District Council in a closed workshop on Tuesday. Price harmonisation was one of the topics covered. A fact sheet from the Department of Internal Affairs said price harmonisation and cross-subsidisation was not a requirement of Local Water Done Well. 'Concerns about potential cross-subsidisation of neighbouring councils' infrastructure, and harmonisation of pricing for consumers, should not be barrier to councils' discussions about joint arrangements,' the document said. 'Councils entering multi-council arrangements will have a lot of flexibility in deciding among themselves if, when, and to what extent prices are harmonised across districts, services, or groups of consumers. 'They may choose to begin price harmonisations immediately, on an accelerated path, or allow prices to align naturally over time as infrastructure needs are addressed, considering the specific infrastructure and service needs of different groups and areas.' Masterton and Carterton had hearings scheduled for next week and deliberations scheduled for the week after. Tararua would lock in its option on June 11. Each council must submit its Water Service Delivery Plans to the Department of Internal Affairs by September 3 and must demonstrate financial sustainability.
