$10m carryover cash seen as ‘progress’ for Ashburton council

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

By local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:

Delivery has improved but still needs to be better in the Ashburton District.

That was Ashburton mayor Neil Brown’s reaction to the council having just over $10m of carry-over projects from the 2023-24 financial year.

Carry-over money is work that had been budgeted for but was either never started or not completed in the last financial year.

“We need to definitely get the work done in the year we have budgeted for,” Brown said.

“With inflation being rampant over the last few years, when we do get to do the work it's gone up in price from what we budgeted on the year before.

“The carryovers aren’t as large as previous years so we are making progress which is good to see.

“Having no carryovers would be best, but that’s probably a pipedream because there can always be some delays.”

He believed the staff were doing their best to stick to the plans and budgets.

Councillor Richard Wilson said the council needs to be doing what it sets out to do on time and on budget, especially when it comes to three waters projects.

“We need to ensure that the money is spent when we say it [will be].”

Councillors as the governance need to hold chief executive Hamish Riach and the staff that run the operations to account to deliver, he said.

“I support the carryovers but I think they need to be dropping down significantly.”

The council approved the $8,956,894 of capital and $1,318,706 operational expenditure carryovers, a total of $10,275,600.

It’s a big drop from the $38.9m in carryovers from last year (which was more than double the $14.6m the previous year), which had included $22m for the delayed construction of Te Whare Whakatere, Methven water treatment plant, and Mt Somers Water Treatment Plant.

Some projects are repeat carryovers, like the $1.9m for the Art Gallery and Heritage Centre air conditioning upgrade.

There are $4m of property projects and $3.69m of drinking water projects making up the bulk of the $8.9m of capital works.

The figure was reduced by $50,000 as the councillors decided not to fund the installation of shade infrastructure in the courtyard play area and blinds on the ground floor windows adjacent to Baring Square East.