ECan records lower deficit than expected

Monday, 8 October 2018

Environment Canterbury has recorded a slight deficit in an otherwise steady year.

The regional council's annual report reveals the council spent $172.6 million against an income of $171.3m during the 2017-18 financial year.

However, chairman Steve Lowndes said it was actually a better result than budgeted.

'We had actually budgeted for a deficit closer to $4m, so that shows we actually ran a pretty tight ship,' Lowndes said.

Public transport and urban development remained a big part of its work in the past year, accounting for about 41 per cent of the council's total expenditure.

'It's always a big year for public transport, but it's going to be even bigger next year,' Lowndes said.

He said there were several changes to public transport coming up, particularly in Timaru, where there will be a trial of a new demand-based service to complement the current service.

'We're going out for consultation at the moment, and I understand they've already received twice as many submissions than what they had expected,' Lowndes said.

'There will be a lot of work next year putting the draft regional public transport plan into action.'

Meanwhile, the Canterbury Water Management Strategy was progressing, with a total of 63 biodiversity projects this year, which included 42 new projects initiated under the Immediate Steps Programmes; 13 under the Canterbury Biodiversity Strategy fund; and eight through the Biodiversity Regional Initiatives Programme. 

'We're going to refresh parts of the strategy, but we're not changing much,' Lowndes said.

There were also proposals for establishing a carbon budget for the regional council in an effort to cut down emissions, while Lowndes said he wanted to see the Christchurch office have photovoltaic solar panels installed.

'It's just an idea. I'm quite passionate about climate change, and the fact we all need to change our behaviours to mitigate its effects, so that would be a good place to start,' Lowdnes said.