GWRC 'scaremongering' over Hutt City water

Hutt City Mayor, Ray Wallace “utterly refutes” suggestions by the Local Government Commission and Greater Wellington Regional Council that a supercity is needed to deal with renewal work on the Hutt's water infrastructure.

“The inference of a looming infrastructure crisis in the Hutt is unsupported nonsense, designed to scare people into a supercity they don't need.

“It’s really frustrating to see this kind of misinformation entering what should be a reasoned, evidence based discussion on the best representation for our region.

“I can give categorical assurance to Hutt residents and ratepayers that these statements are 100 percent wrong.

“The current state of our water system is good, with almost 75% of our water supply pipelines rated moderate to very good, wastewater pipelines have 68% percent rated moderate to very good, and over 90% of our stormwater pipes are rated moderate or better.

“The rest is scheduled for replacement. We have an annual programme and more than adequate budget to deal with that,” Mr Wallace said. “In fact, recent work by expert asset management professionals at Wellington Water Ltd. has identified $10 million in savings that will directly benefit Hutt City ratepayers”.

Mr Wallace said the erroneous claims from the GWRG and LGC illustrated the supercity problems of remote decision making by people who don’t understand the situation at a local level.

“This is what happens when people who don't live in a community try to make decisions for it,” he said.

“I refute the suggestion that we should always spend our depreciation. Sensible people paint their house every 10 years as it needs it, with touch-ups in between - you don’t paint one-tenth of your house every year, that’s just nonsense,” Mr Wallace said.

Furthermore, says Mr Wallace, the supposed efficiencies of a supercity model have already been realised with the region’s water system.

Wellington Water Ltd. manages the region’s drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services. This company is owned by the five councils of Porirua, Upper Hutt, Lower Hutt, Wellington and the Greater Wellington Regional Council.

Hutt City Council is advised by Wellington Water on how much to spend and where in order to achieve the level of service agreed to with our community.

Once again, says Mr Wallace, all this discussion about super-cities is simply wasting time and money and holding up the smart progress, region-wide efficiency and well -running local democracies of the region.

ENDS

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