More than 1,000 submissions have been received by Hastings District Council during consultation on how best to manage drinking water, wastewater, and urban stormwater services.
The public consultation on the Government’s Local Water Done Well programme, which closed on Sunday, asked the community to consider three options for how water services could be delivered in the future.
Based on information to date, Hastings District Council’s preferred option for the consultation was to form a new regional water services organisation, in partnership with Napier City, Central Hawke’s Bay, and Wairoa District Councils.
Hastings Mayor, Sandra Hazlehurst said the strong community response reflected the importance of the decision.
“We’ve had an outstanding response, and it’s clear the community cares about the future of our water services. Thank you to everyone who made a submission,” Mayor Hazlehurst said.
She said Council would now carry out a detailed review of the feedback received. Hearings for submitters who indicated they wished to speak would be held on Tuesday 8 July.
Over the coming weeks, councillors would weigh up a range of factors before reaching a final position, including:
- – Community feedback
- – Financial sustainability
- – Governance arrangements
- – Workforce capacity and access to specialist skills
- – Risks to compliance with national water standards
- – Opportunities to improve resilience and service levels
- Hawke’s Bay’s councils are expected to make decisions on the model they will go with by the end of July.
- Regardless of the outcome, all councils are required to submit a Water Services Delivery Plan to the Department of Internal Affairs by 3 September.
