Water management funding priority for regional council 2010/1

Environment Canterbury draft Annual Plan: rate increases reduced, move towards water management as a funding priority

Environment Canterbury commissioners have made a number of changes to the council’s draft Annual Plan to reflect the shift to addressing water management as a priority for the region.

The general rate will decrease by 0.5 per cent, compared with 2009/10. The draft plan had proposed a 3.9 per cent increase. The rates collected by the regional council are a combination of targeted rates for specific communities and programmes, and general rates for programmes common to all Canterbury ratepayers. The overall rise now proposed is 3.3 per cent, down from nearly 9 per cent in the draft plan.

Canterbury Water Management Strategy
Commissioners agreed to increase funding of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy by $3.2 million for 2010/11, including a freshwater biodiversity protection/restoration programme. The total budget for the strategy is $4 million.

“Although there has been a reduction in the proposed overall rate rise from nearly 9 per cent to 3.3 per cent, within the total budget we have achieved a significant shift of resources to support the Canterbury Water Management Strategy,” said acting chair David Caygill.

“We acknowledge that as commissioners we have come in at the end of the annual planning process. We heard four days of public submissions and now must ensure that staff and resources will be directed towards the Canterbury Water Management Strategy and away from some areas where other agencies are also involved.” One example, Mr Caygill said, was the Clean Heat Project. “This has been very important in Christchurch, but given that other assistance programmes are also available, it no longer requires the same level of resources.”

The council received 438 submissions on its draft annual plan for 2010/11 and commissioners heard verbal submissions from around 90 representatives or individuals in Christchurch and Timaru. As a result of those submissions, the commissioners made changes to the annual plan at their recent meeting, which will be adopted on June 24, when the rates will be formally struck. Changes include:

Major savings:
Savings in contracts for Metro bus services reduced the budgeted expenditure by close to $2.3 million. More than $1 million was removed from the council’s budget through reductions in some work programmes and projects in the coming financial year. The Christchurch Clean Heat Project targeted rate was also reduced by $430,000 to $3.6 million.

Other reductions:

As a result of the Environment Canterbury Act, elections for regional councillors will not occur this year, saving $125,000.
The budget for funding appeals to the Environment Court was reduced by $150,000 as the new legislation means that appeals can only be made to the High Court on points of law.

In response to submissions, the commissioners also agreed:

to allocate $230,000 extra funding to the Animal Health Board’s Bovine Tb programme. This money will come from the Bovine Tb Reserves fund.
to facilitate a new North Rakaia river rating district.
to fund pest district programmes from the individual pest district Reserves instead of increasing rates for these districts.
to increase funding for a park ranger for Northern Pegasus Bay ($10,000) in conjunction with funding from the Waimakariri and Hurunui District Councils.
to allocate $20,000 from general rates to Te Korowai o te tai Marokura (Kaikoura Coastal marine Guardians), as a pilot project in the coastal area.

Water management cost recovery
A charge on water consent holders will be introduced to recover 30 per cent of the cost of scientific investigation and monitoring work relating to water. Commissioners adopted the method set out in the draft plan for apportioning this cost across consent holders. This will reduce the general rate by $2.3 million and recover these costs directly from water consent holders, including hydro-electricity companies. In future, the Canterbury Water Management Strategy’s zone committees will act in an advisory capacity in determining the investigations in their areas. Commissioners noted that the 30:70 split between user pays and general rate was the result of a lengthy working group investigation.

Resource consent compliance monitoring charges
Environment Canterbury has a statutory obligation to monitor compliance with resource consent conditions. A new charging regime was introduced for the 2009/10 year to recover costs of this service and for the first time this involved a fixed administration cost of $63 per consent as well as a reduced monitoring charge. Thirty-seven submissions were received seeking changes to the new regime. These came from two particular categories of consent holders, relating to septic tank systems and disposal of stormwater through soakage pits. The commissioners agreed to maintain the status quo for the 2010/11 year, but also requested that staff continue to explore options for addressing concerns being raised by the two groups of consent holders. In this regard they endorsed the joint approach being taken with the Mackenzie District Council to create a global soakage pit stormwater consent for subdivisions, thereby enabling individual consents to be surrendered.

Changes in levels of service and funding Clean Heat Project
Environment Canterbury’s highly successful Clean Heat Project, once the only way for people in Christchurch to gain a subsidy to convert their polluting open fire or older log burner to clean heat and better insulation, is now one of several providers of home heating assistance in cities like Christchurch. This has been thanks to the funding available from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA), a central Government agency.

As well as having extra players in the market, the net average cost per household for Clean Heat Project conversions has increased, in line with a higher standard of insulation and installation requirements. As a result, commissioners approved a reduction in the projected number of Christchurch households to gain Clean Heat Project assistance in the coming year from 3,450 to 2,400. In turn, the proposed targeted rate, $4.03 million, will also be reduced by $430,000.

Other towns in Canterbury will benefit with slightly more household conversions in the coming year. Timaru’s household target will increased from 300 to 446, Ashburton’s from 200 to 337, Kaiapoi/Rangiora’s from 200 to 427.