‘A waste of money’: Council to spend an extra $11m on Akaroa wastewater pipe despite staff advice

Thursday, 23 July 2026

Christchurch City Council added $11m to the $153m Akaroa wastewater scheme to extend an overflow pipe 2.7km into the harbour rather than 500m.

Akaroa’s wastewater scheme will now cost $164.3m after the Christchurch City Council voted to spend an additional $11m on a longer overflow pipe, despite staff saying there was no evidence it would work better than a shorter one.

The move was described by one councillor as “ridiculous” and a “waste of money”, while Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger said the council had only one chance to get it right and the cost increase was “not that much more”.

The move comes at a time when the council is trying to find cost savings across the board ahead of an impending rates cap.

The council voted 9-4 on Wednesday to extend the overflow pipe at Children’s Bay to 2.7km - more than five times the 500m length recommended by staff.

At the same time the council reaffirmed its plan to seek fast-track approval for the scheme despite the threat of legal action from residents, who have vehemently fought the proposal at every step.

The council plans to dispose of Akaroa’s treated wastewater on land planted with native trees in Robinsons Bay and Hammond Point, replacing the existing scheme which dumps the treated wastewater into the harbour.

About 1420 homes and businesses will benefit - the equivalent of about $115,500 per connection.

Mayor Phil Mauger says the council has only once chance to get it right, however, he could not vote on the outcome due to a conflict of interest. He owns a home in Akaroa.

The scheme involves building an overflow pipe into Children’s Bay, a popular recreational area. The existing overflow pipe discharges onto the beach.

The pipe would only be used when the system was at capacity, which staff estimated to be around once every two-and-a-half years during heavy rain events.

However, council water and waste planning senior engineer Kylie Hills said more work was needed to confirm that frequency.

Hills said the current network overflowed into the harbour about once every six months, so the frequency of raw sewage overflows would drop substantially once the new scheme was running.

The new pipe was originally proposed to be 300m long, but councillors asked staff in April to investigate longer options.

Staff came back with a recommendation to increase the length to 500m, which would have added $800,000 to the cost.

In a report, staff said the 300m pipe met public health requirements and extending past 300m would not improve ecological outcomes.

Staff said extending the pipeline to 500m would help address public concerns about recreational and amenity values and a longer outfall would further alleviate those concerns.

When the scheme was first approved in 2020, it was expected to cost $63m. Earlier this year, the estimate blew out to $176m, prompting staff to identify savings that reduced the cost to $150m in April, based on a 300-metre pipe.

The cost then increased another $3.2m due to higher fuel and material costs and lifting the contingency fund, taking the total to $153.2m, before councillors approved the additional $11.1m for the 2.7km pipe.

Mayor Phil Mauger, who did not vote because he owns a home in Akaroa, said if raw sewage ever came out of a pipe close to shore, the council was “going to get shot”.

The existing wastewater treatment plant at will be moved under the proposal.

“Let’s bite the bullet and put it out there (2.7km). I know it’s a lot dearer to go there, but if we’ve got the gear there, I know it’s a cost, but it’s not that much more.

“We’ve got one chance of doing this right.“

Councillor Tyrone Fields said the scheme was going to shape the future of Akaroa and the harbour for generations and the council needed to “do it once and do it right”.

As a compromise, Councillor Melanie Coker proposed a 1000m option, which would have added $2.6m to the cost, but the vote was tied 7-7, making way for the 2.7km option to be voted on.

Councillor Jake McLellan said going further than the staff recommendation was “just a waste of money”, but supported the 1km option in the spirit of compromise.

The longer option was “ridiculously” further than it needed to go and came at a “ridiculous cost” without any additionalenvironmental or ecological benefit, McLellan said.

Earlier in the meeting, Bruce McLean, of the recently-formed Children’s Bay Protection Society, urged the council to pause the fast-track approach and support a process that genuinely listened to residents.

The group sent a letter to the council earlier this month asking it to reconsider its April decision to pursue the scheme. If it did not, the group could take a number of steps including requesting the Auditor-General to examine the decision, or issue judicial review proceedings.

After the meeting, McLean said he did not expect the council to push the pipe out to 2.7km, but he was happy it did.

However, it still did not resolve most of the group’s concerns, he said.

“We do not think this scheme is worthy of a fast-track consent and are hopeful the application will be turned down.“

Councillors who voted for the 2.7km pipe: Victoria Henstock, Kelly Barber, David Cartwright, Tyrone Fields, Tyla Harrison-Hunt, Aaron Keown, Sam MacDonald, Mark Peters, Tim Scandrett.

Against: Coker, Pauline Cotter, Nathaniel Herz Jardine, Yani Johanson. McLellan abstained. Mauger did not vote due to conflict of interest and councillors Celeste Donovan and Andrei Moore were absent.