NZ Engine

Source: Radio New Zealand

A Wairarapa council’s climate-change adaptation programme is showing early signs of success.

From no-mow trials in public parks, to soft plastic recycling and addressing water processing issues, Carterton council is adopting sustainable practices across its business units.

The council’s policy and projects subcommittee was updated on the programme’s progress at its meeting on Wednesday.

“We are doing really well,” a spokesperson said.

“There is some great stuff happening. Things like the composting trials, waste-minimisation and progress on our district plan. There are good things in there from a climate perspective.”

A report presented to the committee described climate-adaptation successes in the council’s parks and reserves, water, waste, planning, community development and facilities.

“Climate change, natural hazard risk, and resilience are central themes woven throughout the proposed district plan,” the report said.

“The strategic direction chapter outlines the key matters to guide decision-making and introduces objectives that focus on: climate change mitigation, adapting to climate change, resilience to natural hazards, water resilience and renewable energy.”

A no-mow trial had started in selected parks from September.

This is a land management initiative where areas like parks, road verges, or reserves are left unmown for a time to study the benefits of reduced mowing.

The current trial is at Sparks Park, Carrington Park, Feist Street Reserve, Bird Reserve, Howard Booth Park, and South End Park.

“It’s not the entire park, it’s just a strip of the area – encouraging the wild flowers to grow,” a spokesperson said.

The first two climate community forums, on afforestation and freshwater happened in October and November, with more planned.

Soft plastic recycling was now available through a local supermarket, and community engagement had been encouraged through “plastic free July”, “clean-up” week in September, and similar projects.

The council had switched domestic rubbish bags to ones with higher recycled content, and provided support for Carterton’s community gardens, foodbank and composting initiatives.

“The Waignawa process water project (first stage) was opened in September providing low-cost, non-potable water to businesses within the Waingawa industrial area.

“This will reduce the use of chemicals and power by not using potable water for process water,” the report said.

The council’s climate change strategy – adopted in April – aimed to enhance knowledge and understanding and build a culture of change so that, as an organisation, the council would lead by example.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The government’s proposed rates cap could put future core infrastructure projects at risk, Marlborough mayor Nadine Taylor says.

The government has proposed capping rates rises at a target range of 2-4 percent a year across all general and targeted rates, excluding water charges and non-rates revenue such as fees and charges.

Local Government Minister Simon Watts said the proposal was “about stopping the runaway rate hikes” that had impacted families and those on fixed incomes.

Councils would have to start factoring the cap into their planning from 2027, with the full cap coming into effect in 2029.

Taylor said no-one, including her, wanted to see rates rises like those of recent years, with Marlborough’s increase this year at 8.61 percent.

“Those rates rises we’ve had have been very much outside of council’s control,” Taylor said

High rates rises had been largely tied to inflation, Taylor said.

“Local government inflation isn’t measured against things like butter or mince, things that households buy. It’s measured against steel and bitumen and the cost of building a bridge.

“Those costs have essentially just gone crazy in the last few years.”

Local government inflation was 3.3 percent this year, meaning almost all of a 4 percent rates cap would have been used to cover inflation, Taylor said.

Taylor said that while she understood why water charges were exempted from the rates cap, with $413m of infrastructure investment needed in the next 10 years, she didn’t understand why roading was not also exempt.

“Many councils across the country are looking at a bell wave of renewals in roading,” she said.

“A lot of those renewals are around quite expensive items like bridges … that roading is key infrastructure should be treated the same as water.”

Watts said he did not envisage a situation where councils would let the conditions of their roads deteriorate.

But Taylor said that without exemptions, councils would struggle to fund road renewals under the cap.

Under the proposed cap, councils would need to apply to a regulator to raise rates beyond the cap, which would only be granted under exceptional circumstances such as natural disasters.

The Marlborough Roads Recovery project repairing storm damage from previous years, now in its third and final stage, was partially funded by gradually increasing targeted rates until 2034. Under a rates cap, that funding would be at risk.

“We could be an early example of a council that needs to apply for an exemption,” Taylor said.

It was important the exemption process be flexible and fast-moving to support communities when responding to natural disasters or infrastructure needed for climate change resilience, Taylor said.

“The central government seems to like the term fast-track, so they’re going to need a fast-track process for exemptions in order to keep the country moving,” she said.

Marlborough would need significant climate resilience infrastructure in the future, including raising stopbanks along the Wairau River to protect towns from the increased risk of flooding, Taylor said.

“We don’t want to be having a conversation with our communities to say to them, ‘we can’t do this work, we can’t protect you, we can’t renew that bridge’.

“But if there is not enough flexibility built into this system of exemptions, then that’s a conversation that we might end up having over the next 10 and 20 years.”

While most infrastructure investment was funded through debt, council had to be cautious as to how much they allow debt to make up funding shortfalls, she said.

On Tuesday, credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s said that a rates cap could lead to a greater debt burden as council’s could be forced to rely more heavily on debt to finance capital expenditure.

Councils that responded to the rates cap by loading up on debt could see their credit ratings downgraded, making it more expensive to borrow.

Uncertainty around funding and exemptions meant councils could be reluctant to take on new projects, Taylor said.

“The one that springs to my mind immediately is the homeless, the issue that we’re seeing rising here in Marlborough.

“We will struggle to consider to take on any more obligations … where the community is very, very keen for us to take a lead, we just won’t be able to.”

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand