Councils adopt Local Water Done Well water services delivery plans

Thursday, 28 August 2025

The Timaru District Council adopted its Local Water Done Well water services delivery plan at a meeting on Tuesday. (File photo)

Timaru’s council has adopted its Local Water Done Well plan, approving a loan of up to $2.36 million to implement it.

The council’s water services plan would now be reviewed by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), and was adopted on the same day neighbouring council Waitaki approved its own plan for an in-house unit.

Outgoing Timaru District councillor Allan Booth says it has been a clear intention of the council that a CCO be formed, while also actively looking for partners to join it. (File photo)

While Timaru’s decision, on Tuesday, was unanimous, the adoption came after plenty of questions from councillors.

Last month, councillors opted to form a council-controlled organisation (CCO) with the option of joining other councils in the future.

Hear how Local Water Done Well tracking in last month before deadline

Earlier this month Timaru’s council called an emergency meeting after an offer to join a water services CCO with the Central Otago, Clutha and Gore district councils. Timaru chose to stick with the status quo.

Outgoing councillor Allan Booth said if the council included all parties in the discussions around the plan, more progress could have been made by now.

“Ultimately the wish is, in principle, we form a water services delivery company with the preference of a shared model, which is what we voted for,’’ Booth said.

Booth said negotiations and discussions around partnerships needed to be done at the highest level within the council, “not the council officers’’.

Council chief executive Nigel Trainor asked Booth if that meant that between now and March, when the Local Government Water Services Act 2024 would come into full effect, councillors would do all the work on the plan.

Timaru District councillor Nigel Trainor says a lot more work will be done between now and March, which will be required whether the council is alone or has partners for the delivery of water services. (File photo)

Booth responded: “If you’d probably included the people that had been involved in the working group in all the discussions, you may have found that you might have had a bit more progress.”

Booth said he thought the level of discussion around the plan was “chairman to chairman’’.

“…I see in this report bias towards actually staying in-house.’’

However, Trainor said there was “nothing about in-house in the water service delivery plan’’ and it had been set up for a CCO, with the flexibility of finding partners.

He said a lot more work would be done between now and March, which was required whether the council was alone or had partners for the delivery of water services.

“And I cannot see elected members doing that work,’’ Trainor said.

“I think that’s rather disrespectful to the officers.’’

Booth said the sooner partners were identified the better, and Trainor agreed.

Timaru District councillor Michelle Pye says she is concerned as “numerous times in this room we approve a budget and it becomes a target’’. (File photo)

“The elected members should be involved in that, and it would be good if that was driven harder,” Trainor said.

Booth said it had been a clear intention of the council that a CCO be formed, while also actively looking for partners to join it.

Councillor Stu Piddington says looking at the figures, the best thing would have been to stay in-house until partners were found. (File photo)

“So I’m concerned the council seems to think that they must keeping going and run it along on their own…’’

He said when forming the CCO, the council should only go “so far down the road’’ until partners were identified otherwise it would incur costs which could be not required if it found other councils to join with.

He said things such as recruitment of board members, office location, branding and IT should be deferred until partners were confirmed.

Timaru District mayor Nigel Bowen says the September 3 deadline has been “sitting there for a long time’’, and councillors have made a decision on the water services delivery plan, and they have to own it. (File photo)

“So really, we should be only confirming a certain amount of money to get us to the preliminary design of our CCO on a basis that we will have someone in place by the 31st [of March] 2026, and ready to do just one agreement at the appropriate time.’’

Councillor Michelle Pye asked for clarification on the establishment costs of the CCO, saying they seemed “extraordinarily high’’ to her.

“My concern is numerous times in this room we approve a budget and it becomes a target,’’ she said.

Trainor said officers had looked at what costs were required to establish the entity and they were extensive.

This included recruitment, legal costs, the transfer of covenants, and setting up computer systems.

“If we don’t have partners by 31st of March, we’re going to have to go ahead and do that,’’ he said.

Councillor Stu Piddington said looking at the figures, he thought the best thing would have been to stay in-house until partners were found.

Timaru District councillors unanimously approved its water services delivery plan on Tuesday. It will now be reviewed by the Department of Internal Affairs.

Referring to questions from Pye and Booth on establishment costs, Piddington said: “If we’d actually taken a breath, we might be better off.”

Piddington then asked Trainor what he would have done, if it had been his decision to make.

“Our paper was to stay in-house until we had partners … our analysis told us it was the more cost effective option at that stage,” Trainor replied.

He said there was a risk the council would end up with a standalone CCO.

Mayor Nigel Bowen said the September 3 deadline had been “sitting there for a long time’’, and councillors had made a decision and they had to own it.

Waimate District Council approved its in-house water services delivery plan last Tuesday, while Mackenzie’s council has also decided to kept its services in-house.