The Queenstown Lakes District Council underspent its Wanaka capital works budget by $6.5 million in the year ended June 2011, it has been revealed.
Queenstown Lakes District Council's Wanaka capital works project manager Rob Darby said several projects had been deferred to this financial year, accounting for a small part - about $1 million - of the low expenditure. These include the $700,000- $800,000 Ardmore-Brownston St roundabout, which has been delayed because of NZTA design and funding approvals, and several other minor carry-over projects.
"That leaves us somewhere in the order of $5.5 million [below budget]," Mr Darby said.
The $5.5 million under-spend came from projects which the council was either able to defer "indefinitely" because the work was no longer required, or "look more closely and find better and different ways of addressing the issues that those projects were to address".
Several planned 3 Waters upgrade projects were "driven by development" and therefore not needed at this time. Although money would still be spent on Wanaka and Hawea water systems, a comprehensive review and revaluation in terms of concept design meant the expenditure would be "not as much as previously forecast", Mr Darby said.
"At some stage everything needs to be upgraded as the town grows. But these sorts of projects have been deferred in excess of 10 years.
"We looked at the way wastewater is transported around Wanaka and basically there were some quite large projects devised to address long-term supply of water and they were critically appraised and we can tame those down and that's really what's happening across the board.
"The reality is quite a lot of Wanaka's wastewater and water reticulation is actually in quite good condition and can suffice for some time yet."
Mr Darby said the under-spend did not translate to a surplus of available funds.
"Capital expenditure is funded by debt ... so it's simply less debt incurred."
The significant under-spend continues a recent history of capital works under expenditure in the Wanaka ward. In the year ending June 2009, the annual spend was just over $2 million less than budgeted .
"It's always good to be able to rationalise projects and re-evaluate them and find a way of saving money," Mr Darby said.
QLDC finance manager Stewart Burns said most of the capital works projects were not funded by rates and the under-spend would have "no direct additional impact" on ratepayers.
