The Queenstown Lakes District Council has reported a $6.37 million saving in its infrastructure capital works budget for the 2009-10 financial year.
QLDC capital works manager Ken Gousmett said the budget underspend of 15.4% was largely due to the deferral of projects and savings due to "closer scrutiny of staff".
"Staff were required to make a 10% saving, which had been achieved, but other factors had seen the underspend increase.
"All projects have been carefully reassessed for need at each key stage and where we can, we have deferred projects, or parts of projects.
"A reduction in growth has been another factor," Mr Gousmett said.
A significant amount of the under-expenditure had been in wastewater projects.
Projects where there were savings included Closed Landfills Queenstown ($216,000); Refuse Bins ($215,489); Project Shotover Stage 1 ($104,482); Aubrey Rd East Reticulation ($767,732).
Allenby Farms Reticulation and Pump Station ($408,577).
Bremner Bay Pump Station ($420,856).
Gordon Land Sewer Upgrade ($215,635). Arrowtown Bore Field Upgrade ($823,812).
Peninsula Bay Water ($135,403).
Hawea Water Supply Upgrades Stage 1 - Falling Main ($145,152).
Gorge Rd Stage 3 - road reconstruction ($142,039).
Humphrey St Extension ($489,298).
The reduction in New Zealand Land Transport funding had also seen several capital works projects postponed.
"The key advantage here is that this flows into less borrowing on the part of the council and therefore less debt," Mr Gousmett said.
Short-term deferrals, long-term deferrals - where a project may be set back for five to 10 years or more, and savings - where a project or part of a project is not needed, or the scope could be reduced without changing the level of service, were all aspects of the under-expenditure.
"All of these are positives towards addressing the council's long-term debt and an indication of the council's commitment to delivering value for money to the ratepayer," Mr Gousmett said.
The information would be reported to the QLDC utilities committee tomorrow.
