Water services delivery decisions in Timaru District remain open to change

Thursday, 6 March 2025

The Timaru District Council may have joined the Southern Water Done Well Steering Group, but the final makeup of water services delivery across South Canterbury remains fluid.

While Timaru committed to work with the Waitaki, Clutha, Central Otago, and Gore district councils on ways to jointly deliver on the Government’s Local Water Done Well programme at a meeting on Tuesday, other options that involve the Mackenzie and Waimate councils are also on the table.

Southern mayors welcomed Timaru’s decision to join them in exploring future delivery options under the Government’s Local Water Done Well legislation, and described the steering group as “one of the most significant collaborations in South Island local government”.

Mayors Gary Kircher (Waitaki), Bryan Cadogan (Clutha), Tamah Alley (Central Otago) and Ben Bell (Gore) spoke with Timaru district councillors before Tuesday’s meeting.

In a joint statement, the mayors said the partnership challenged the status quo and proved that all councils – big or small ‒ can be bold leaders.

“We’re committed to turning over every rock to find water delivery solutions that provide real value for our ratepayers while maintaining the local voice our communities demand.”

By September this year, the group ‒ as with all New Zealand councils ‒ needed to have identified the best options for delivering water services in the future, talked to their communities about them, and produced a Water Services Delivery Plan.

The plans would show how councils intend to deliver water services that met regulatory requirements, support growth and urban development, and were financially sustainable.

Timaru District mayor Nigel Bowen said in the statement that he was looking forward to progressing the group’s ideas and seeing how they fit with the needs of his community.

“We face many challenges in providing high quality water services to our community in the long term, not only financial ones,” Bowen said.

“From this decision today, we get to join forces with a group of like-minded councils to consider how best we could work together to provide this critical infrastructure in a sustainable way.”

However, Tuesday’s meeting also revealed the potential for Timaru, Waimate, Mackenzie and Waitaki to also work together.

Cr Michelle Pye, while fully supportive of joining the southern steering group, said she believed there was a need to keep every door open.

“Will we continue to look at Mackenzie, Waimate, Waitaki and ourselves as a group?”

Bowen said that idea made sense, but it needed willing parties “and that’s the challenge”.

“That would be the smartest option to continue with,” Bowen said.

Cr Stu Piddington also agreed, adding “it would be a really smart option”.

“I don’t know why those fellas are sitting out but I think we’ve got to explore this and give it our best shot and hope the others see the light and join us,” Piddington said.

Bowen said the Mackenzie District was having discussions next week and could potentially join the group.

Timaru chief executive Nigel Trainor said Waimate was “desperately keen to do a shared service agreement”.

“So they [Waimate] want to keep their’s [water services] in house, as does Mackenzie but they want to do a shared service with us and I think that’s the avenue into exploring that further,” Trainor said.

Cr Scott Shannon said it was important that the community realised that this was “one of the potential options that needs to be consulted on”.

“We are not making the decision,” Shannon said.

The steering group commitment agreement passed on Tuesday set out the process to consider the design of a joint council-controlled organisation (CCO) and how it compared to other practicable options, such as leaving water services in-house or setting up a standalone council-controlled organisation.

A complete analysis of the three options, including the impact on each council’s rates, debt and levels of service, would be presented for community feedback at the end of April.

Prior to public consultation, the councils needed to identify their preferred option from the three analysed.