It’s in your hands: Waipā’s future water services and Long Term Plan

Dive on in Waipā – it’s time for you to have your say on the direction of the district for the next nine years, and the way you want future water services to be delivered.

At an extraordinary meeting today, Waipā District Councillors unanimously approved the consultation document and supporting information for the draft 2024-35 Long Term Plan. Public consultation on the draft plan, as well as on the Local Water Done Well proposal, opens tomorrow.

Mayor Susan O’Regan said she couldn’t wait to get out and hear from the people of Waipā. “It’s been a complex and challenging journey to get to where we are – a journey through the unknown in many respects,” she said.

“Our priority was to provide a true and complete picture to our community.”

Therefore, Council had to take an adverse audit opinion on the consultation document on the chin. This was not a surprise and came as a result of a difference in perspective between the auditors and Council on including the costs for water service delivery for the full nine years of the draft plan, as well as growth assumptions.

“Given that we have not yet received community feedback on our separate water consultation — nor made a final decision regarding the future delivery of water services — our draft Long Term Plan has been prepared on the basis of maintaining our current in-house water service arrangements,” O’Regan said.

“This allows us to tell the full story and shows clearly the financial strain that waters services places on us.

“As Elected Members, we are united in our commitment to consult authentically with our community, and did not want to pre-determine the outcome.”

The auditors considered the way Council had predicted growth in the district, especially over years four to nine of the draft plan, was overly optimistic.

“Our modelling is careful, conservative and based on our real world experience and local knowledge, guided by professional advice – we are comfortable with our assumptions,” O’Regan said.

Council staff went through an extremely robust process in drafting the Long Term Plan, with Elected Members involved at every step, and sought independent legal advice that confirmed including the waters services in the budgets was prudent.

“We very thoughtfully considered the auditors’ views, and decided it is more important to provide the true picture to our community than to amend our figures solely to secure an unmodified audit opinion.”

O’Regan says that importantly, the adverse opinion on the consultation document does not prevent Council from proceeding with public consultation.

This year the draft Long Term Plan only covers a nine-year period rather than 10, because last year Council opted to adopt a one-year Enhanced Annual Plan.

The average rates increase over the nine years of the plan is 5.9 percent. The highest average increase is in the 2025/26 at 15.5 percent, dropping down to 2.3 percent in the later years.

Consultation is open from tomorrow for both these important decisions, and will close 5pm Monday, June 9. For more information and to have your say visit waipadc.govt.nz/haveyoursay.