At the latest weekly update on Tuesday, councillors and WDC staff provided further information on water service delivery plan requirements and the capital expenditure programme, needed to establish the planned ring-fenced, in-house water services unit as part of Local Water Done Well legislation.
Last week the council submitted a draft plan to the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), and is awaiting feedback.
"We're expecting to be able to share some feedback next week, but we do know that we've got more work to do on our water services delivery plan before it is ready to be submitted," council chief executive Alex Parmley said.
Presentations at Tuesday’s workshop were made by the Local Government Finance Association (the main lender to local councils), representatives from Morrison Low, and district council infrastructure manager Joshua Rendell, together with assets planning manager Paul Hayes.
There was also information on the introduction of water metering for water users in the district. That would see users move to a volume-metric charging system, based on water usage.
WDC staff pointed out water metering had been shown in other areas to result in lower bills for the majority of households, excepting those with very large families. It had also resulted in a reduction of water wastage.
It was also recommended that metering should be free for at least one year to help establish usage behaviour and identify any water leaks.
The council will continue to work on creating a financially sustainable water services delivery plan. The deadline for providing internal affairs with a final water services delivery plan is September 3.
The presentation given at the workshop is available on the council’s website together with the working draft water services delivery plan.
The next public workshop is scheduled from 3.30pm to 4.30pm on Tuesday, August 12 at the Council Chambers in Thames St.
