Manawatū submitters overwhelmingly endorse council stance to go it alone on water services

Saturday, 3 May 2025

Effluent treated at the Feilding plant being discharged to land — part of an extensive upgrade of the district’s wastewater services in 2018. (File photo)

The support was as emphatic as it was expected, but not without its cautions.

Manawatū ratepayers are overwhelmingly onside with the district council on its preference to deliver water services in-house and shun any shared entity with neighbouring authorities.

A mammoth 505 public submissions were received on the district’s Local Water Done Well preferred options, and more than 95% favoured Manawatū District Council going it alone.

Local body authorities throughout New Zealand have been required to consult their communities on the future delivery of drinking water and wastewater services.

The prospect of losing local control and having to subsidise the ailing water assets of other districts dominated fears of ratepayers in Feilding and the surrounding district, who found little value in the alternatives — shared services with Palmerston North, or with Palmerston North, Horowhenua and Kāpiti.

Modelling indicated Manawatū households connected to a shared scheme with Palmerston North would be paying an average $426 more than the status quo each year for the first 20 years. The four-council model forecast an additional $329 a year.

Submitters were also acutely aware of the rates burden they had already been shouldering due to the district’s extensive investment in three waters infrastructure over the past decade, and had little appetite to take on the challenge of Palmerston North’s costly wastewater project.

However, it would be unwise for the district to say “that’s your problem” and turn its back on its big brother, warned former councillor Shane Casey when he spoke to his submission in support of a single-council model on Thursday.

Many people lived and worked between Feilding and Palmerston North, and there were many partnerships, he said.

It would be prudent for Manawatū District Council to support the city’s campaign for central government funding of its Nature Calls wastewater upgrade “in any way that it sees fit”.

Feilding’s wastewater system has been significantly upgraded in the past decade, and many locals consider it a penalty for the community to be lumbered with the three waters problems of other districts that have not planned as well. (File photo)

“Absolutely, you can leave them out there in isolation and go ‘PNCC, you’ve had flash statues and Square upgrades and this, that and everything else’, but there’s also a social responsibility. It’s not just PNCC that is affected.”

Cheltenham-based data engineer Luke Doidge-Bailey expressed similar sentiments, observing “when Palmerston North coughs, Feilding gets a cold”.

He supported keeping water services in-house as it was the only model that didn’t disadvantage Manawatū residents, but encouraged the council to give careful consideration to the risks climate change would bring.

“Not only would we be on the hook for the additional costs of ensuring our infrastructure is climate resistant, it also means we’ll be on the hook for increased insurance costs, and the risks of new regulations being imposed on us by central government.”

Palmerston North City Council’s preference is to form a four-council water services entity, but both Kāpiti and Manawatū districts have baulked at the additional charges it would bring ratepayers. (File photo)

Doidge-Bailey was also concerned the discussion paper on the preferred option did not address the role of tangata whenua and that it promoted the same isolationism and short-term thinking that got the local government sector in such strife on water services in the first place.

“This district is not an island. It is not a fortress we can chuck walls around and pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist.”

Hinemoana Durie, representing Aorangi Marae, said Manawatū ratepayers could not afford to be burdened with the debt of other councils, and was confident the single-council option ensured the greatest opportunity for consultation with Ngāti Kauwhata and other iwi.

While she acknowledged Local Water Done Well was focused on urban water supplies, she advocated the need for greater equity in water services throughout the district, to ensure rural whānau had safe and secure water access and a genuine voice in decision-making.

“We want every iwi, hapū and marae to be involved in every level of water service planning and delivery, including future rural water schemes, flood mitigation, governance groups and broader water infrastructure decisions.”

Mayor Helen Worboys said she was impressed with the high number of submissions received.

Manawatū District Council was one of seven local authorities that would come together on May 8 to explore any remaining opportunities for a shared service model, before formally adopting its preferred option on May 15.

For her, personally, she said the path forward was a no-brainer.

“Why would our ratepayers want to incur more costs when it doesn't give them any extra benefit?”