Timaru District Council announces plan to cut 71 roles

Monday, 24 March 2025

A proposal to cut 71 roles at Timaru’s council was announced to staff on Monday morning, with the chief executive Nigel Trainor saying staff appeared to be in shock at the news.

“I have informed staff that we are going to have a restructure and that brings with it a downsizing of our staffing numbers,” Trainor said.

“I’m proposing there will be 71 positions affected, and there will be another 19 going back in with a job that looks different to what they’ve currently got … and so that will be a net proposal of 52 positions being disestablished.”

The council has a staff of 316.7 FTE (full-time equivalent), plus an unspecified number of vacant positions. It is yet to share a copy of the proposal, but has confirmed some of the roles that may be cut are vacant.

Asked how staff had taken the news, Trainor said “shock” would be the word to describe the reaction.

“… it was quite silent … particularly with the size of it, the size of what we are having to do.”

Following the announcement, the council closed its front offices for the remainder of the day.

Trainor said the total saving of the proposed cuts was between $3.5 million and $4 million a year.

“I think we are in for a month or two of having stressed staff, in terms of their future, so I’d like the community to bear with them.

“We’re working hard to try and get the organisation in a much better financial position without too higher rates burdens.”

He said the council had been working on its Annual Plan, and through that work it had become clear further savings were needed.

“Through that process it has become very clear that we have a hard-core operating deficit.”

Trainor said if the council went with a 12% rate increase for the 25/26 year, the operating deficit would still be about $9.8m.

“That operating deficit is quite hard-core and we’ve got to … bring it down.”

He said he had been working on the proposal for about three to four weeks.

“It is a proposal written by me, and it is what I see. Obviously staff now have an opportunity to put in their submissions and that could change.”

Trainor said he had suggested a submission period of two-and-a-half weeks, but the union would like a month, so it would be “probably around a month”.

The proposed changes are the first made by Trainor since he started in the role in December 2023 and he said he hoped it “will be the last time too”.

“The proposal I’m putting forward is to flatten the structure. It is a leaner management structure, it does also affect some people that are delivering services to the community.

“I want to do it once, in my term as CE, and I want to get it right. Effectively, if we can do this really well and get this organisation right-sized, then we shouldn’t have to do it again.”

Trainor said the proposal was part of a wider look at cost cutting, which was being applied right across the council.

He said the council had “four levers” it could pull to improve its financial position, and listed those as rates, fees and charges, staffing costs and arrangements with contractors.

He said he believed they were already increasing rates to the “maximum that the community can probably afford”.

“Fees and charges is the other one we are going to have a good look at, in terms of what people are paying for the stuff that they use outside of rates.

“We have a number of other expenses that we are also looking at … like an example, the contracts for parks is part of those other expenses and we are looking to bring it in-house to see if we can save some money.”

Trainor said the council was working with the Public Service Association, which had a delegate on-site at the council on Monday.

The PSA has been approached for comment.