The major decisions in Wellington City Council's long-term plan

Wednesday, 29 May 2024

One day out from the biggest council meeting of the term, big decisions on the future of the city until 2034 remain up in the air.

On Thursday the council will vote on its budget for the next 10 years, including the central decision about whether to sell its 34% shareholding in the airport in order to make up for a $2.5 billion insurance gap.

Councils around the country have agreed this is the toughest long-term plan for local government in decades, with unavoidable cost escalations eating away at budgets.

Wellington was particularly constrained by decisions of previous councils, with large capital projects already under way including the earthquake strengthening of the library and the town hall, and significant upgrades to its social housing portfolio.

Selling the airport shares

The main event will be a debate about the sale of the airport shares, but how it could go is anyone’s guess.

At a dramatic briefing last week, staff told councillors that if they voted against a sale it would create a $450 million budget hole. Some councillors described the briefing as heavy-handed “scaremongering” from staff to encourage a sale.

On Tuesday councillors were unsure how the vote was likely to play out. Last week a partial sale was the favoured option, but support for a full sale of the shares has since increased.

John Apanowicz said over the past week, it had become clear that the council’s shares would be worth significantly more if they were all sold together.

Several councillors still haven’t made up their minds on how to vote and are waiting for written answers from staff, which they will receive today.

Seven councillors have previously pledged not to sell the shares.

Four rubbish bins for every household

Nicola Young was concerned about the cost of the council’s plan to introduce organics collection and provide households with four rubbish and recycling bins.

Tony Randle said it seemed like a “gold-plated” option at a time when the council should be focusing on the essentials. He was working on an amendment about stopping the plan to revamp the waste system.

The operating costs for the new bins could be as much as $22m a year, and the council proposed to fund the cost through a fee of about $350 a year for households.

Parking fees in the suburbs still in the picture

The controversial plan to introduce parking fees across shopping centres in the suburbs was scrapped for next year, but council budgets continue to rely on the extra revenue from 2025 onwards.

Councillor Ben McNulty said the announcement that parking fees would be scrapped had been “quite specific” in its wording. While the $5 per hour charge was off the table this year, it remained in the plan for later years.

Randle said it was obvious that the council would not have been able to implement the new fees in the first year, which starts on July 1, because they did not yet have the required parking meters.

While the decision to place the plan on hold looked like the council listening to the community, budgets continued to rely on the new revenue stream coming in.

There was a “disturbingly simple spreadsheet” to calculate the revenue from new parking meters, which assumed enforcement costs would not increase, Randle said. He questioned whether the forecast revenue of $3.5m a year reflected the reality.

The pipes, the pipes are calling

Across the region councils are ramping up investment in the pipes as quickly as they can.

Over the next year, Porirua – a council with one-third of Wellington’s population base – planned to invest $69.6m into capital water upgrades, while Wellington will spend just $61.5m. Hutt City, half Wellington’s size, will spend $80.1m.

But Wellington, constrained by the amount of cash it is throwing at other capital projects like the Town Hall and the Central Library, proposed to delay serious capital funding for the pipes until year four of the long-term plan.

McNulty pointed out that by year four, which begins midway through 2027, there will be an entirely new council and the funding will be up to them. “It’s the next council that will be the steward at that time.”

He would be looking at ways to bring the funding forward, including pulling funds from other budget lines.

Will the Khandallah Pool live to see its 100th birthday?

The $11.7m option to rebuild the Khandallah Pool and fix flooding from the nearby stream is a no-go even from the pool’s biggest supporter at the council table.

But Diane Calvert remained hopeful that the community’s preferred option might go ahead.

Save Khandallah Pool has asked the council to establish a panel of engineers to find a cheaper option, with representatives half appointed by the community and half appointed by the council.

“The community are saying, rather than A or B, here’s a third option. It’s a positive way forward.”

Even if the council didn’t vote to keep the pool, the community would still feel they had been properly consulted and given input, Calvert said. Under this approach the pool would reopen in its current state for the summer of 2025 – when it would be 100 years old.