Ruapehu District Council will join with Whanganui District Council to form a two-council Water Services Council-Controlled Organisation (WS-CCO) to deliver future water services under the Government’s Local Water Done Well reform programme.
The Ruapehu council voted to support the two-council WS-CCO model at its meeting on 9 July, with the decision contingent on the Whanganui council confirming its preference to partner with Ruapehu. That confirmation came today, with Whanganui councillors voting 8–5 in favour of the joint model.
Ruapehu District Council Chief Executive, Clive Manley welcomed the confirmation, saying it was an important milestone that enables both councils to begin work on the detailed planning and implementation.
“This has been a long and complex process, and a significant amount of work has gone into getting us to this point,” said Mr Manley.
“Now that we have clarity and agreement from both councils, staff can progress the necessary steps to implement the new water services delivery model. Until we had confirmation of our partner council, there were key aspects we simply couldn’t move forward on.”
He said the immediate priority will be the development of a joint Water Services Delivery Plan (WSDP) with Whanganui District Council.
This plan must demonstrate how the proposed two-council WS-CCO meets the Government’s legislative requirements – particularly around financial sustainability – and must be submitted to the Minister of Local Government for approval by 3 September.
“Given ministerial approval of the WSDP, Council staff will be working closely with Whanganui to operationalise the new WS-CCO as quickly as possible,” said Mr Manley.
“The target is for the WS-CCO to be fully operational by mid-2027. In the meantime, water users in Ruapehu will continue to be serviced by our existing provider, Veolia, with no change to service levels.”
Mr Manley noted that the Whanganui council had also voted to include stormwater services in the new WS-CCO.
Ruapehu is still considering whether to transfer its stormwater services or retain them in-house. This decision will not impact the establishment of the WS-CCO, Mr Manley said.
“We’ll make a decision on stormwater in due course, but it doesn’t prevent us from moving forward with the rest of the WS-CCO implementation,” he said.
