Happy New Year and all the best for a heathy and prosperous 2023
As your elected members we have been focusing our attention on the myriad of submissions due the Natural and Built Environment Bill and the Spatial Planning Bill, whilst there are some positive aspects of the proposed change is legislation, we have serious concerns regarding the lack of public participation opportunities and whether a regional approach will adequately address local concerns and needs. We support the retention of local design standards that reflect character of special areas with Hanmer Springs and Mt Lyford being good examples.
Many of you will have followed the establishment of the Water Services Entities Act which establishes the four entities and sets out their objectives and functions.
The next two bills drafted are highly technical and complex:-
- The Water Services Legislation Bill establishes the regulatory functions and powers, to the water services entities and to make rules and plans relating to water services.
- The Water Economic Efficiency and Consumer Protection Bill 2022 has 3 forms of regulation which includes sharing information, determining quality standards and price regulation.
Hurunui District Council continues to state our opposition to the 3 Waters reform as it is currently presented by the Government and our submission should in no way be construed as any endorsement of the reform.
We strongly state our support for economic and consumer protection regulations in the 3 water service, especially in the light of the proposed Water Service Entities that will essentially be monopolies and may become less responsive to communities.
From our perspective concerns remain in a number of areas, but in particular the relationship between councils and the new entities is uncertain and given all the intelligence that sits within our council teams it has the potential to expose a significant loss of system knowledge.
For our consumers on small mixed rural water supplies there is the option for the supply to be run by the operators other than the water service entity, we however continue to have concerns that the threshold for such a transfer is very high.
I recently had the privilege to attend a session that formed the induction for the youth council for 2023. I was very impressed with the calibre and focus that the group demonstrated and I have no doubt they will represent themselves and our council well.