A contractor that has run into difficulty with the way it has looked after wastewater treatment plants in the Clutha district is also used by the Dunedin City Council, which remains confident its processes are in order.
Citycare holds contracts with the city council for maintaining water, wastewater and stormwater assets, and maintaining green space for the council’s parks and recreation services.
A council spokesman said it maintained an appropriate level of oversight of work by Citycare.
That was one thing the Clutha District Council did not do.
The Clutha council was fined nearly $500,000 for failures in managing its wastewater treatment plants.
The district council pleaded guilty in the Dunedin District Court this week to six charges under the Resource Management Act.
Its contractor Citycare, however, has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges and will appear in court again next year.
The court was told of a series of problems in the Clutha district and the council accepted fault.
One enforcement officer described the Lawrence site as “smelling like rotten eggs combined with decayed chicken when left in the sun”, for example.
The Clutha District Council had a responsibility to provide oversight and confirm the contractor was doing the required work, Judge Brian Dwyer said.
In Dunedin, a city council spokesman indicated there should not be any misunderstandings there.
The council had a team of staff who worked with Citycare to issue tasks, ensure the work was completed to a high quality and resolve problems if expectations were not met, he said.
"We also use an independent auditor to help monitor the quality and quantity of the company’s work." — Additional reporting by Rob Kidd
