Mr Kircher and Waitaki district councillors have written a letter to Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta, expressing their ‘‘strong disappointment’’ with the Government’s decision to mandate Three Waters reforms.
Councillors approved the letter, penned by Mr Kircher, at yesterday’s assets committee meeting.
In the letter, Mr Kircher outlined previous examples of the council working with central government, and said councillors had kept an open mind on the reforms.
‘‘We took the Government at its word when it said we would have an opportunity to properly engage with our community and get their feedback to help us decide on whether we would opt in or opt out of the reform process,’’ he said.
‘‘Sadly, that key tenet of local democracy has been torn from our grasp.
‘‘Our central government has acted cynically and prematurely, trampling on our previous co-operation and partnership. Local government has once again been treated as the subservient lackey by central government.’’
Mr Kircher made several requests to meet Ms Mahuta and the Department of Internal Affairs to discuss why the reforms had identified Waitaki’s ‘‘reasonably good’’ water infrastructure assets as requiring an ‘‘incredible’’$1.5 billion to be spent on them over the next 30 years.
Councillors all agreed there was a case for change, but they did not believe the size of the problem in Waitaki was ‘‘anything remotely close to the numbers promoted by the Government’’, and therefore questioned the overall financial case for change of $120 billion-$185 billion.
‘‘If even half of the councils’ estimates are out by as much as we believe ours is, the whole reform has been built on a very flawed foundation,’’ Mr Kircher said.
Deputy mayor Melanie Tavendale said there were a lot of areas of the reforms that ‘‘just don’t make sense’’, especially for rural communities.
‘‘I think it just shows they don’t have a willingness to learn from those in smaller rural areas,’’ Mrs Tavendale said.
‘‘We’ve attempted to feed back in quite a number of times to question the way they’re talking about doing things — and it seems to have fallen on deaf ears.’’
Cr Jim Thomson did not believe there was any debate the current model needed to be upgraded.
‘‘The resentment of the opposition, without consultation as promised, is actually going to undermine the fundamental premise that water needed to be dealt with,’’ Cr Thomson said.
‘‘But until central government actually realise ... that they need to engage with the local communities that put them there in the first place, we’re not going to make any progress on improving water to the ratepayers of Waitaki.’’
Cr Kelli Williams hoped the Government would listen to the feedback it was receiving from councils across the country, and understand it.
