Stratford council weighs regional vs stand-alone water services delivery plans

Councils must complete a water services delivery plan by September 2025, assessing their water infrastructure needs. Photo / 123rf

Go it alone or work regionally – when it comes to Stratford District Council having a water services delivery plan, both options are still on the table.

At last week’s policy and services meeting, elected members chose to continue investigating both options, with the next decision date set for January or February.

At that point, elected members will decide which options will be put to the community for public consultation.

Under the Government’s Local Water Done Well legislation, councils have a year to develop a water services delivery plan for ministerial approval. The Local Water Done Well Act replaces the Three Waters reforms, which the coalition Government repealed in February.

The water services delivery plan, which can be developed independently or jointly with other councils, must cover drinking and wastewater, with an option to include stormwater. The plan must outline how water services will be managed, meet all required quality standards, and demonstrate it will be financially sustainable.

At last Tuesday’s meeting, councillors debated whether council staff should continue progressing with a combined regional analysis for the future delivery of water services with South Taranaki and New Plymouth district councils or stopping the collaborative approach in favour of a go-it-alone one.

The clock was ticking on the process, chief executive Sven Hanne told councillors, saying there was a “legislative timeframe” of 12 months and they were now over six weeks into it.

They would be aware, he said, both neighbouring councils had made this decision over the past couple of weeks and had opted to continue investigating a regional and a stand-alone approach.

“That doesn’t mean that you have to go the same way. It just sort of gives you a little bit of insight into how others have taken it.”

In the decision report, Hanne stated that while the work so far on the modelling of the various options had been funded from a residual Three Waters Reforms budget, that budget had now been used up.

No budget allocation for the modelling had been made in the long-term plan, he stated, so any costs in investigating the options were unbudgeted. That cost was estimated to be about $250,000-$300,000, he said.

Councillor Grant Boyde said he was frustrated by the process.

“What frustrates me is central government legislating the local authorities to develop, and publicly consult on, a public water service delivery plan after everyone has done their long-term plans and having no budgets; for me, that really ticks me off.”

The sooner elected members could rule out options, the more beneficial it would be financially, Hanne said.

“But on the flip side, you obviously need to explore them until you’re comfortable that they are not an option for you.”

Councillor Steve Beck was in favour of Stratford going it alone.

“I believe in backing ourselves here which Stratford has done for many years. I would like to see us just do our own business unit for that and spend the money on that. I believe we have good infrastructure.”

Work on a second water trunk main for Stratford was completed in 2022, increasing the district's resilience around drinking water delivery

He said he felt going alone was a viable option.

“I like it.”

Deputy Mayor Min McKay asked what would happen if elected members were to decide to only continue investigating a regional model if, at the next decision point, one of the neighbouring councils decided to opt out of that proposed model.

“It has to be a coalition of the willing,” said Hanne, adding a coalition model didn’t have to be simply neighbouring councils, but could include councils from further north or south.

“But for a start, I would say if there’s two councils that wanted to go to together or that wanted to go as a group and one opted out, it would be for those remaining players to decide whether they want to do it as a smaller group or has it lost the critical mass at that point.”

Councillor Hall said while she didn’t usually like making decisions based on what others had done, in this case she felt they should consider the decisions New Plymouth and South Taranaki councils had made on this.

“If we decide to not look at the regional model, the option falls over for everybody. If we decide to not look at going it alone, then if our neighbors jump off the ramp at the next point we’ll be on the back foot entirely. So I think the pragmatic, sensible approach is to look at both options.”

That way, she said, councillors would have a really good understanding of the options.

“So when it comes to the next step, we can go out to the community with all the information at hand.”

Mayor Neil Volzke agreed.

A regional model was, he said, the one that had been discussed the most under the previous proposed Three Waters Reforms and in the new legislation.

“That’s the one that’s been covered for the last seven years in various shapes and forms, the one that’s been developed that’s in front of us.”

“I think we should explore the options for a regional model and also for a stand0alone model; that way we’ve got something to compare to.”

When it came to the final decision next year, it was important to remember it wasn’t only about picking the cheapest option, he said.

“There are, and will be, other factors that come into play in this.”

When it came to the vote, 10 of the 11 elected members present voted in favour of continuing to investigate options on both a regional model and for Stratford to go it alone with the water delivery plan. Councillor Steve Beck voted against. Councillor Clive Tongaawhikau was absent.

Disclaimer: Editor Ilona Hanne is married to the chief executive of Stratford District Council.

Ilona Hanne is a Taranaki-based journalist and news director who covers breaking and community news from across the lower North Island. She has worked for NZME since 2011.