Community feedback on water sought in two separate consultations
The Central Otago District Council is gearing up to head into a Long-term Plan (LTP) consultation with the community, in which priorities and direction will be set for the next nine years.
This will be happening amidst the Government’s new laws and regulations impacting water service delivery nationwide. These regulations mandate financial sustainability, environmental responsibility, and customer affordability for water services.
Councils are now required to develop and submit water services delivery plans (WSDPs) by 3 September this year, outlining how they will meet these requirements.
They are evaluating various delivery models, including in-house water services, a stand-alone water Council Controlled Organisation (CCO), and a joint water CCO, which will be analysed in both the LTP Consultation Document and Local Water Done Well consultations.
At an extraordinary meeting to be held on Friday 28 March 2025, the Council will be looking to approve the formal LTP Consultation Document, which if adopted, would then be open for community feedback until 28 April.
A recap of the past two months
When the Central Otago District Council (CODC) first drew up a list of items to consult on for approval at the January meeting, the future delivery of water services (drinking water, waste, and storm water) was not included because it was decided that this should be consulted on separately when more information was available on water delivery options.
Following that meeting, the CODC learned from the Waitaki District Council, which had received feedback from the auditor on its LTP, that a water section should be included with delivery options to meet the Government’s legislative and audit requirements. This was a contributing factor to an extraordinary meeting of Council called in mid-February.
At the meeting on 26 February, the CODC made amendments to its consultation document, and these will be presented back to Council for approval at the 28 March meeting.
Two water delivery consultations
This means that the CODC will be consulting on water services delivery options during the upcoming LTP consultation, followed by a similar process with its partner councils in the Local Government’s Local Water Done Well,renamed Southern Water Done Well to reflect a regional collaboration, to commence on 9 May.
The Council, along with Gore, Clutha and Waitaki district councils, has been investigating a multi-council approach to forming an organisation to deliver water services. At the next ordinary meeting (Wednesday 26 March), the Council will be seeking formal approval to allow Timaru District Council to join the Southern Water Done Well agreement, with the three other councils following a similar process.
- Long-term Plan consultation – Our plan for water (March-April)
In the consultation document the Central Otago community will be asked for feedback on two options:
Option A is the preferred option (because of the legislation); create a Council Controlled Organisation (known as a CCO) that would commence operations from 1 July 2027. The Council could form a stand-alone CCO or a joint CCO with other councils. The organisation would be owned by the Council or councils.
Pros: Cost and debt would be transferred to the new organisation, there would be oversight from a board about our water services, a sharing of knowledge and resources, and projected increases in price would slow compared with retaining the services in-house because the organisation would be able to continue debt funding the waters capital programme.
Cons: Water activities would no longer be part of the Council rates bill so there would be a separate water bill from the water organisation.
Option B –Status quo: Services would continue to be delivered in-house but with a higher cost and would require significant increased investment in infrastructure and staffing levels due to the changing economic and regulatory settings.
Pros: The Council would continue to own, maintain and deliver its water services.
Cons: Because of the significant investment needed to upgrade water services infrastructure, delivery of water services would mean reaching the current debt ceiling by 2027-28, within three years of the 2025-34 LTP.
CODC Group Manager –Three Waters Julie Muir provided further clarification on what the status quo and the services remaining in-house would mean.
“Due to the changing legislative requirements relating to performance and economic regulation, continued water services delivery will require significant increased investment in infrastructure and staffing levels; therefore, it is not an option of continued delivery at the same standards and at similar cost.”
Ms Muir said this would be monitored closely by both the Commerce Commission and the New Zealand water regulator Taumata Arowai.
2. Southern Water Done Well consultation (May-June)
In this consultation, the councils have the opportunity to revisit their LTPs and to ask all the communities impacted for their feedback on three options; maintaining a status quo and establishing either a single-council CCO or a multi-council CCO.
CODC Chief Executive Peter Kelly said it was unfortunate timing having to have this consultation hard on the heels of the CODC Long-term Plan consultation, but it was necessary because of the work required to submit their Water Services Delivery Plan to Government by the 3 September deadline.
“The timing is not great and having two consultations back-to-back, is not ideal. It impacts on all five participating councils to varying degrees.
“People have the opportunity to have their say, in both their council’s LTP and in the wider Southern Water Done Well consultation. Hopefully, this will increase their understanding; for instance, maintaining water delivery services comes at a higher cost and would impact other parts of council’s functions to the detriment of other council services.
“Doing a thorough consultation gives people a voice, and means we can gauge, at both a local and regional level, how the community feels about the changes to how we will need to be delivering water services in the future, while meeting economic, environmental, and regulatory requirements.”
The Council will be holding information and drop-in sessions for the LTP consultation around the district between 2-17 April, and an online session 22 April.
For more details go to Council’s Let’s Talk page: https://lets-talk.codc.govt.nz/what-s-important-central-otago-2025-34-long-term-plan
