Ashburton council demands action from ECan
By local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
Ashburton's councillors are demanding action from the regional council so money from a proposed hefty rates hike isn't "just sucked up into Christchurch".
With the community facing a 24% average rate increase from Environment Canterbury, Ashburton District councillors said they want to see action in key areas and assurances that money is being well spent.
Their comments came as they discussed their submission on the regional council’s proposed long term plan.
Councillor Richard Wilson said ECan is loading a lot of costs back onto users and the Ashburton District is facing a large rate increase.
“A lot of that is for what I would call common good things like protecting the Ashburton River.
“We need to recognise that a lot of money is being taken out of our district and we hope the services come back [and] it’s not just sucked up into Christchurch and lost in the ivory towers.”
Ashburton mayor Neil Brown said that with the district contributing a significant amount of money to ECan, “we want to see some action now”.
Brown was critical of ECan’s consultation summary document, which he said “doesn’t give me good guidance on what ECan want to do, especially for the Ashburton District”.
With a proposed 24% average rate rise, he “can’t see where that money is being spent” in the district, but admitted he had yet to read the full 300-plus page document.
However, he said if he was struggling to understand - as someone “a bit more educated" than the general public reading the documents - he wasn’t sure if the community would see where the money would go.
Councillor Carolyn Cameron said she wanted better reporting of the work being done.
“They need to have some accountability for that money in my view.”
The council submission is pushing for ECan to lift its use of the uniform annual general charge, which has every property pay the same amount from 8% to at least 12% of total rates or higher, ‘to better reflect the benefits of its programmes across the region and to alter the spread of the rates burden’.
The council has raised it before and hasn’t had a response, Brown said.
“We need a response back to our submission that is [respective] of our submission, not the general letter that gets sent out.”
He will put that to regional councillors when he presents the submission.
Brown also wanted to send a clear message that the council wants a review into how river catchments are rated for and funded.
The submission also calls for an immediate review of the recent Ashburton River consent review process that imposed new Ashburton River minimum flow conditions on consent holders.
It supports the proposed work on Carters Creek but requests the work be brought forward.
The council is also asking for the consideration of a public transport pilot in Ashburton, and a daily Ashburton-Timaru and Ashburton-Christchurch service.
The consultation on ECan’s draft long-term plan closes on April 14.
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The Ashburton District Council’s submission uses example properties to show the average rate increase for Ashburton rural properties is 24% and for urban properties, the average increase is 31%.
A rural property in Wakanui worth $4,760,000 will pay $2,681.20, an increase of $523.99, while a rural Rakaia valued at $13,510,000 will pay $15,633.84 – a jump of $3728.56.
An Ashburton urban property worth $430,000 will pay $409.66, a $98.03 hike.
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Ashburton’s second bridge cost bumped up
By local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
The cost to build Ashburton’s second bridge has leapt to $130 million as questions remain on how it will be funded.
The council has kept its contribution at $7.5m, despite the estimated price jumping by 15% in two years.
Ashburton Council chief executive Hamish Riach provided councillors with an update on the second bridge after he recently met with Minister of Transport Simeon Brown.
The Government has made the bridge, a key State Highway 1 route in Canterbury, a national transport priority.
Minister Brown made it clear that the council would need to look for funding in the National Land Transport programme process, Riach said.
That will start with conversations between the council and NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi around “innovative funding mechanisms”.
After meeting, Riach and Mayor Neil Brown reached out to NZTA regional relationships director James Caygill about “actively getting on with those conversations with their funding people”.
The National Land Transport programme is an investment package for priority transport projects.
For a project to be included in the National Land Transport Programme it has to feature in a council’s long-term plan, Riach said.
The council has chosen to keep the $7.5m figure in its budget planning, even though the cost of the project has increased.
The business case prepared in 2022 estimated the project – a 360m-long bridge across the Ashburton/Hakatere River and new road infrastructure - would cost $113m.
An NZTA document prepared in November estimated the project will cost between $100-$200m.
A recent report from Infometrics, commissioned by Local Government New Zealand, found that over the last three years, costs have gone up significantly and bridges are 38% more expensive to build.
“We note the bridge is programmed to cost $130m and our share, at $7.5m, may or may not survive the whole funding process.
“A lot is going on in this space that is incredibly uncertain.”
The council will adopt its LTP in June – including the $7.5m figure – before knowing what the NLTP entails, Riach said.
“It makes for a messy picture for this project in our formal plans and budgets.”
The minister acknowledged the need for the bridge - easing congestion and improving safety on SH1 - and as a result, the subsidy rate “needed to reflect the improvement to the state highway network”, Riach said.
“We took from that, that a subsidy rate ahead of our normal FAR (funding assistance rate) was entirely justified.”
Rather than a 51% FAR subsidy the business case suggested a 62%, but the question remains how to fill the gap between 62% and 100%, Riach said.
Mayor Brown said the minister also spoke of the Government looking at different ways of funding roading going forward.
This included the possibility of road tolls, Riach said.
“He reiterated that it is certainly his intention to review the way in which tolling is a mechanism for funding projects a little bit later in the year.”
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No tolls without law change
Under legislation, tolls can only be placed on state highways, not on a local road, which is what the second bridge is considered to be.
It also prevents an NZTA toll from raising funds for a council project – so a toll on the existing SH1 bridge couldn’t be used to fund the new local road bridge.
A legislative change could see the possibility of introducing a toll on the existing SH1 Ashburton/Hakatere Bridge or on the second bridge to pay for the project.
There are currently only three toll roads in New Zealand – the Northern Gateway Toll Road north of Auckland, the Tauranga Eastern Link Toll Road, and the Takitimu Drive Toll Road, both in Tauranga.
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