Westland District Council, jointly with Buller and Grey District Councils, has prepared its Water Services Delivery Plan to comply with new Government requirements. The plan will be formally considered at the Westland District Council meeting on 28 August.
In May, following community consultation, the three West Coast councils resolved to form a shared Council Controlled Organisation (CCO) for water services. This decision was made on the best information available at the time and ensures Westland has an equal seat at the table as the new national framework is introduced.
Mayor Helen Lash said while many in the community feel water services in Westland are already working well, the new law requires change:
“We often hear the question: why change what isn’t broken? The answer is that Government legislation directs us to. We don’t have the option of saying no. What we can do is make decisions that protect Westland’s interests and ensure we are not disadvantaged.”
Two new pieces of legislation set the rules for how councils must manage water services:
Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Act 2024
- This law requires councils to prepare a Water Services Delivery Plan — basically a roadmap showing how water services will be run and paid for.
- Councils must also share financial information with the Commerce Commission, to make sure everything is transparent as a new national regulation system is set up.
Local Government (Water Services) Bill (still before Parliament, but expected to become law)
- Councils must submit detailed Water Services Delivery Plans, showing how water will be managed and funded into the future.
- There will be new national rules for pricing and financial reporting, overseen by the Commerce Commission, so that services are run efficiently and fairly.
- Money collected for water services must only be spent on water services.
- Councils can set up or join special water organisations (like the West Coast CCO) that are financially sustainable.
- The law blocks any move to privatise water services — they must remain in public ownership.
- If councils don’t comply, or if Government doesn’t accept the delivery model, Ministers can step in. They can appoint Crown facilitators or commissioners to take over running water services — and the cost of that intervention would fall back on councils and ratepayers.
In short: the laws are designed to make sure water services are financially sustainable, transparent, and publicly owned. Councils don’t have the option of ignoring them.
Westland District Council has been clear:
- A shared CCO model is the most practical and sustainable long-term option.
- An “in-house” model would require significant additional resourcing to be run as a stand-alone entity, separate from other Council operations, and Westland is simply equipped either with resources or infrastructure to sustain the monitoring and reporting that is expected by regulatory authorities of this approach.
- Council has held the line against cost harmonisation across the three districts — Westland ratepayers will only pay their fair share.
- Each partner council will hold an equal share in the new entity, ensuring Westland has an equal voice.
- Any of the three council’s assets would only be transferred to the CCO with safeguards .
Chief Executive Barbara Phillips said the plan is an important milestone, but not the final one:
“We have met our statutory requirement by preparing this plan, but the work does not stop here. There is still much more to do to determine and refine delivery arrangements and ensure our community can be informed and understands the implications.”
To provide clarity around costs, the three councils will continue to firm up the delivery options and WDC Council will bring forward a process of looking at rate impacts from LWDW to late 2025, rather than early next year as planned for later in the Long-Term Plan cycle. This will give Westlanders a clear understanding of what the changes mean locally.
Council will formally consider the Water Services Delivery Plan on 28August for adoption for then progressing to the Department of Internal Affairs for assessment and sign off..