Despite another district’s shock last-minute withdrawal, the Gore District Council has passed the southern water plan partnership with a near-unanimous vote.
The Southern Water Done Well partnership with the Central Otago and Clutha District Councils was passed in Gore on Monday.
Only Cr Stewart MacDonell voted against it.
Last week, the Waitaki District Council voted to withdraw from the proposed council-controlled organisation (CCO), in a shock decision that went against its previous unanimous support and that of its mayor.
Of the 11 Gore councillors who gave their opinion on the infrastructure plan, at least half said they felt pressured to go with this decision by the government’s September 3 deadline.
Deputy mayor Cr Keith Hovell was the first to say that he felt "bullied" into making a decision.
"The information that we’ve been given by government ... [is] that we have no choice of moving forward and in that respect I feel as though we are being bullied into making a decision on a certain outcome," he said.
The three options set out for the southern district councils were to go with the government’s jointly owned CCO, have a standalone CCO or an in-house business unit.
Cr Glenys Dickson said of the three options proposed, the legislation only permitted the approval and implementation of the first option, a joint CCO.
She said that made her "deeply concerned".
Cr Paul McPhail said he did not see any other options and Cr Bronwyn Reid said the council’s hands were tied.
"Government has been very clear. The minister [for local government Simon Watts] was actually quite arrogant, I thought, and rude," Cr Reid said.
"Obviously, we have no option but to vote for option one," she said.
On a more positive note, Cr Neville Phillips said water infrastructure plans were important and would affect the next 50 years.
"We need to achieve more effective ways to invest in a long-term platform that invests effectively and plans for a comfortable future," he said.
He said although this plan was placed upon them, change was needed and should have happened many years ago.
Cr McPhail said in regards to the loss of Waitaki as partner in the agreement, three was better than one.
"Change is never easy, believe me. It’s not going to be an easy path ... but working together with the other organisations — surely we can put something together for the future of water infrastructure in our communities," he said.
With the "heartbreaking" surprise of Waitaki "doing their own thing", Mr Ben Bell said the joint plan would have to be re-evaluated with expert consultation.
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"How 161 [Waitaki submissions] could overturn so much work and so much sense ... but that is their decision and that is democracy," he said.
"I just want to make this very clear after the decision today: the work is not done here, there are still a lot of decisions to go forward. ... If we are to reach that first of July 2027 target, there is a huge amount of work that has got to go on between now and then," he said.
