The most urgent and pressing needs of the Upper Hutt City council is not the cost of “nice to haves” it is the cost of water. The current central government has a bill to remove from legislation the need for councils to consider social, economic, environmental and cultural “wellbeings” and require core services to be prioritised, spending on contractors disclosed and each council’s performance to be measured. I have no issue with prioritising core services or disclosing contractors spending or council’s performance being measures this would surely be the focus of any properly conducted public audit. There is however a concern that, Wellington Water Ltd overspent on contractors and administration without due oversight by the councils across Wellington region that own Wellington Water Ltd, increasing the cost of water delivery more than was necessary and exasperating water shortage in summer that threatened water restrictions. The need for water restrictions was billed as leaks on private property, rather than inefficiencies and cost over runs of Wellington Water Ltd and incidentally, billing Upper Hutt incorrectly as the, “ Leakiest City “, due I am sure to our rejection of water meters. Any potential Upper Hutt city council member needs to be awake to the issue of water delivery to our homes and business. Central government is, in my opinion, mudding the waters for legislative restrictions on our council that require restrictions on council spending on the so called “nice to haves” that are the life blood of any local community providing local amenities for our enjoyment and ensuring social cohesion. The future holds central government passing legislation as to what council’s core role should be and the capping of local councils’ rates. While this may seem desirable water infrastructure, will still need to be paid for. It is already a fait accompli we are told by our present Councils and Regional Council that water metering will be the source of measuring and allocating water. The bill for water delivery will be charged and collected by a combined council water entity in the range of $5000 upwards, per year this on top of our rates, capped or not. My question is what funding cap will be placed on a council owned water entity. It is suggested that we will have control on the cost because we will have control on our personal use. This is false, there will be a type of line charge and the less the water entity can receive from water use, the rise in the line charge will increase. The purpose of water meters is not as some think for the conservation of water it is revenue gathering and the step towards loss of our water delivery and assets, to private contracting companies as it happened with our electricity boards. As, a council member I will act to protect our water, assets, source and costs as far as possible with value for money. I will advocate for central government funding support without strings starting with taking GST off our rates, while not depriving our local community of the “nice to haves” that make Upper Hutt a place to live work and play.

(Issued and approved by) Teresa Homan Upper Hutt City Council candidate “Nice to Have”.

A “thank you” to Teresa Homan for sending this article to The Upper Hutt Connection.

18/08/25