Businesses buying water from the Dunedin City Council are likely to get a breathing space before big increases in tariffs are introduced.
Council water and waste services manager John Mackie wanted to begin phasing in a 37% increase from March 1 to help claw back a potential revenue shortfall of $931,900.
However, yesterday's meeting of the infrastructure services committee voted to delay any increase for four months.
The shortfall occurred because of a combination of stopped or slowed water meters, poor meter reading, incorrect forecasting and reduced demand for water.
Increasing the 73c per cubic metre water tariff to commercial businesses by 15c on March 1 was a measure staff planned to take to recover about $200,000 of the shortfall.
After yesterday's committee decision, Mr Mackie said the department would have to find another measure.
Cr Paul Hudson said he could accept there were errors in the budget process, but wondered if it was responsible of the council to impose such a big increase at short notice.
Mr Mackie said the increases would have a ‘‘significant'' impact on some big water users, but the new tariff was still lower than that charged by many other local authorities.
Of the total shortfall, $337,000 came about because commercial consumers had gone out of business or employed water conservation measures and Cr Hudson wondered if the way the council was going about making up lost revenue was sending the right message.
Mr Mackie said there were many other ‘‘models'' that local authorities used to cover the costs of water supplies. Councillors briefly discussed whether or not it would be fairer to extend the use of meters to all water users - as Nelson has done recently.
Mr Mackie told the Otago Daily Times that introducing water meters for all water users would be likely to lead to a drop in consumption of between 20% and 30%.
The council sells 5.2 million cubic metres of water to commercial users via 4000 water meters, of which 10% have been found to be either stopped or slowed.
Where meters have not been working, the council will be sending out invoices based on estimated water use. It has begun replacing faulty meters.
The delay in introducing the new tariff will allow the public to make submissions through the annual plan process.
Out with the old, in with the new . . . Dunedin City Council water reticulation operator Tom Hotton holds the replacement water meter for the Zingari Richmond Rugby Club's old meter yesterday. PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH
