Ruapehu District Council delays water decision

Thursday, 26 June 2025

Ruapehu mayor Weston Kirton believes it is best for his council to work with a larger group of councils for Local Waters Done Well.

The Ruapehu District Council has delayed the decision about whether it will work with its southern neighbours to deliver water services as it wants to ensure iwi have sufficient information.

A group of five councils in the Manawatū-Whanganui region - Palmerston North, Horowhenua, Rangitīkei, Ruapehu and Whanganui - had been looking at joining together for the Local Waters Done Well legislation.

Horowhenua, Rangitīkei and Palmerston North had already agreed to work together.

Ruapehu was scheduled to vote on Wednesday to join them, but now mayor Weston Kirton told the Manawatū Standard his council would wait until after Whanganui District Council made its decision in early July, as they were due to meet on Friday with Te Kōpuka, the strategy group for Te Awa Tupua, the Whanganui River Claims Settlement.

Kirton said they did this to ensure they had fair consultation with iwi, and a decision by his council would be likely shortly after Whanganui’s. While Te Awa Tepua wasn’t a decision-making group, it was important to involve them, he said.

“Only last week we got an indication from Te Awa Tepua they weren't satisfied that we as a council had given them enough info to make a decision.”

It was likely Ruapehu would still join with Palmerston North, Horowhenua and Rangitīkei.

Kirton said it would be foolish for his council to go it alone and working with Whanganui wouldn’t give it the efficiency required.

Ruapehu had about 5600 connections.

Advice to councils had been that having more than 50,000 water connections in a larger entity should mean councils had greater savings through economies of scale and they could borrow more.

“Going with the bigger entity gives that efficiency, it gives long-term benefits of collectively sharing the costs.”

Going alone wouldn’t work with the council’s balance sheet, he said.

Manawatū and Kāpiti Coast district councils had both opted to go it alone.

Going with Whanganui was a possibility for Ruapehu, as there was “some affinity with the awa [Whanganui River]”, but that wasn’t Kirton’s preference.

“By a country mile the five entities, to get that 50,000 users in one area, makes a lot of difference in terms of scale and affordability.”