61% of NP Submitters asked for an in-house unit for Local Water Done Well - But 10 elected officals voted for an NPDC Water CCO.

Another sad day for Democracy in New Plymouth on Tuesday 22^nd July.

287 people in New Plymouth put in submissions for Local Water Done Well  (LWDW). A clear majority of 61% people told the NPDC they wanted to keep an in-house structure to manage Local Water Done Well.

The NPDC did not release those submission results, the Alliance released them after doing an LGOIMA request. The NPDC wasn’t keen to get those results out there for everyone to see.

In Tuesday’s meeting to decide on New Plymouth’s structure for water a lot was made of only 287 people putting in a submission.

Only 183 people put in a submission in Stratford – but the Stratford District Council stood behind their people who submitted for an in-house model.

In 2023 when the NPDC put out a consultation on a Climate Change Emission Plan, without advertising widely to ratepayers that a consultation round had opened, just over 150 people submitted on that consultation. The NPDC accepted that Consultation response and implemented that plan and told us how proud they were to do so – with just over 150 people submitting.

But apparently 287 people is not enough to listen to, when it comes to setting up a another CCO.

In New Plymouth, do submissions only count if the people agree with what some of the elected officials want to bring in ?

A tiny bit of consolation yesterday - 5 Councillors Voted against setting up a CCO. It’s unusual so many agree with the Ratepayers and Renters. They were:

Max Brough

Gordon Brown

Murray Chong

Dinnie Moreahu

Bryan Vickery

The reason 10 other’s say they voted for the CCO option was “the long-term cost benefits and future legislative standards swayed those around NPDC’s table to differ in their approach.”

When we spoke to the NPDC about our Local Water Done Well Submission one of our biggest concerns was the one size fits all costing that is being used across NZ, prepared by the Department of Internal Affairs. Basic assumptions have been used to work out costings – assuming that all the costs – all across the country – will be the same. We have no confidence these numbers will work out close to what is being predicted.

Extra layers of management and a board are being added to CCO options.

You don’t need to be a wizz at maths to look at the attached 25 year cost chart and apply a bit of common sense to see the lines on the chart don’t make sense.

They are trying to suggest an (existing) in-house unit (the blue line) will cost as much to “set up” as an NPDC CCO (the dotted line) and a Regional 3 council CCO will cost considerably less to set up - with 2 tiers of management (the orange line) – than either of the other two options.

Really ? The in-house model is already set up and in-house just needs to add the same water compliance costs both other water set ups would have to add. So the lines on this chart just do not seem likely.

Based on errors with GST and the 12.8% average rates increase (the second meeting on Tuesday fixing up errors ) the same finance team is involved in setting the assumptions and numbers for Local Water Done Well.

The people of New Plymouth do not have a lot of confidence in the Finance Team predicting numbers in recent months, (and even the media is reporting on that). The Alliance has very little confidence the NPDC Local Water Done Well CCO costs will be accurate.

And a question asked at the LWDW Council meeting last Tuesday was what will the Co-Governance Costs be for the New Plymouth Water CCO. The Co-Governance term is also sometimes referred to with the terms Cultural or Partnership.

Mark Hall, the 3 Waters Manager for NPDC, replied that for every Water Project they allow 25% for the Co-Governance Costs and 10% for contingency (in case things don’t go according to plan). 

So, for every water project - an extra 25% is allowed for additional costs to manage the Co-Governance/Cultural/Partnership aspect of this water CCO.

But sadly, another CCO, another situation where the Ratepayers and Renters have no say – but they foot the bill.

Our next thoughts are how will they appoint the Board and CEO of the new CCO. Who gets to make this decision ?

We wonder what the recruitment process will be, how they will select and interview candidates – for all the new positions.

Will the Mayor put his hand up for this - as he likes to tell us he is all about infrastructure ? He hasn’t announced yet that he will be asking for your vote again as Mayor this year. There are only 10 days left to do that.

We wonder when the job will be advertised – and we will be very interested in that process.