In a HDC Council workshop this week, Councillors reviewed a staff presentation setting forth a regional scheme as the preferred approach to managing future water services – drinking water, stormwater and waste water.

This option was recommended over both the status quo and creating a new council-controlled organisation, aligning HDC with NCC.

Since ‘decisions’ are not made in workshops, the recommended approach must be officially selected as the preferred option for public consultation at a 29 April Council meeting. These two slides indicate the reasoning behind the recommended regional approach.

HDC joins NCC in selecting a regional approach as the preferred option. CHBDC takes the matter up on 24 April, with officers recommending a regional option. In a conversation today Wairoa Mayor Craig Little said his council was still pondering the options, but that clearly the status quo was not viable for his community.

Slides included in the HDC presentation suggest that councils are planning a somewhat unified public consultation process to be coordinated over May/June by the HB Regional Recovery Agency.

So, a three-council united front on this one, with one still on the fence. Next the public gets heard.

All this is leading up to an expected joint submission to Government in September in response to its Local Government Done Well mandate.