Ashburton council finds extra $2m for roading problems

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

From local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
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The Ashburton District Council is proposing to use $2 million of reserve funds to address the districts pothole problems in the next financial year.

It was among several key decisions made during a three-day annual plan workshop this week to form the council's draft budget for the next financial year.

The recent revaluation, record inflation, rising costs for goods and services, and the impacts of the new Government drinking water compliance will affect residents' rates bills.

Mayor Neil Brown said it would be a no-frills budget on basic services, but the council wanted to inject extra money into its roads.

“Ninety per cent of our roads are in good order, but there are potholes and other issues that need sorting to make them safer,” Brown said..

“We are doing our best to keep the total rates requirement percentage increase in single digits and budgeting for only what we need to do. Some work is on the nice-to-do list and some on the do-later list.”

On the do now list was road remediation with councillors stressing the additional $2m be used to focus on the districts pothole problems.

Brown said drinking water compliance, to meet new Government regulation, would be responsible for a good chunk of the rate increase.

“We need equipment to continuously test and report the quality of our drinking water to meet new quality assurance rules and that is on top of the money we tagged in the long-term plan for big upgrades to some water treatment plants, like Methven’s.”

Methven ratepayers are facing a big cost hike due to work beginning on the upgrades to their drinking water supply.

Councillors are working through options to keep rates increases as low as possible but it will likely be about 15 per cent, similar to last year’s hike.

Brown said it was a challenging budget and would contain only projects that the council knew could be achieved in the financial year.

The annual plan will need to be adopted when the draft is presented to council later this month.

If the plan varies too much from what was signed off in last year’s long-term plan, the council will need to consult the public.