13 May 2024
Media: Local Democracy Reporter
Topic: East Rotoiti/Rotoma sewerage scheme
Enquiry
I have comment for response regarding the rotoiti/rotomā sewerage scheme if someone is able to please help.
Rotorua Lakes Community Board chairman Phill Thomass
told Local Democracy Reporting the two communities were “in panic”.
It was a low-income area, with many residents retired. Much of the land was leasehold.
“Economically, we’re very poor.”
Thomass said it would have been a struggle for the community to afford the previous and long-held estimate of at least $14,000 each it agreed to toward the total of $35 million. ( have noted this included a 30pc cost uncertainty and did not include forward inflation)
He said people in the community repeatedly asked the council for an updated figure over the years, but none was provided, and so the new “unaffordable” figure “blindsided” them.
He forecast mass rates bill non-payments.
“All they’re doing is committing their community to abject poverty.”
On groundwater issues: He attributed about $2million extra to contractors needing to de-water properties before system install, adding weeks to what should have taken days, but believed the cost should be shared by the wider district, instead of the 770 lakeside residents.
“It is unfair and it’s unreasonable.”
“How do we solve this problem of an unaffordable rate being possibly put on to this group?”
Former Lake Rotomā Lake Rotoehu Community Association chairwoman Su Cammell
said its template submission was used by residents. It claimed narrative manipulation from the council when it came to the scheme’s need, demand, benefits, cost‚ [system] type and timeframes.
It stated the scheme implementation “resulted in an extreme loss of trust and confidence” in the council’s ability to work to the Local Government Act.
“We have watched [the council] consistently mismanage relationships, budgets and solutions and have often observed serious incompetencies during the installation of the units on our properties.”
It said the cost escalation, which it was not consulted on, put repayment out of reach for most residents.
It asked for repayment to be deferred until the Government’s plan to replace the previous’ Three Waters scheme was established.
Cammell said there were a lot of older people - on a fixed income, living on leasehold land and no opportunity to re-mortgage - who were crying at the situation.
She believed the council “over time manipulated the narrative”, including by holding short consultation periods with incomplete information.
Neighbours relied on each other for information to be circulated, she said.
Cammell said, in her view, there was no management of the project and no co-ordination of trades people doing it.
Examples included earth being taken from leasehold land when it was not allowed to be removed and systems installed upside down or in the wrong place.
She disputed the Rotomā community was represented in scheme development, with only one person of the 35 on the Rotoiti Rotomā Sewerage Steering Committee from there.
The Lake Rotoiti Community Association committee member Tom Macky
said it held similar concerns to the Rotomā community, including about missing information, and said there had been no direct communication with residents about the project since 2021, and estimates varied with and without GST included which was confusing.
“They didn’t even tell us the scheme was over budget.”
This was despite it knowing in 2021 it was expected to be over the community-known estimate by $15m.
Macky believed it was “just bizarre” the community was expected to pay for the budget overruns.
Arapeta Tahana, Ngāti Pikiao,
said the community’s disappointment would come through in submissions.
Tahana said letters were sent out in 2021 advising there was a cost overrun, but with no details provided there was an assumption it would not impact ratepayers, and was why the figure in the draft Long-Term Plan was such a shock.
He said they had been told they would be advised of any significant overruns.
Iwi had no problem with the purpose of the scheme, he said, but were unhappy with how costs had evolved.
“One of the poorest communities, and charging three times what they said they were going to pay.”
People asking for clarification over the years on what they would pay was not given, he said, and a lack of communication was the big issue.
Tahana explained the environment court process that found the council to have not addressed local iwi concerns in a culturally appropriate way, despite iwi attempting meaningful communication.
Tahana also said legal costs associated with Māori land were not considered in budgets, despite iwi advising the council of the possibility.
About 30,000 hectares in the area was Māori land, mostly Ngāti Pikiao or Ngāti Rongomai, and belonged to about 50 land trusts.
Tahana said iwi recently calculated the trusts and whānau contributed about $1.3m annually in rates to the council.
Why was the community not told about a cost increase of the degree laid out in the draft LTP before that went live?
What other comment not addressed in the above would the council like to provide?
Response
From Group Manager Infrastructure and Environmental – Stavros Michael:
Council has at all times acted in good faith and has been in regular contact with community groups such as the residents associations, the Iwi Liaison Group, Cultural Impacts Team, the lakes Community Board and individual property owners. We are very aware of community concerns regarding costs and are awaiting a decision from the current Minister for the Environment about the extra external funding requested for the scheme to help to further mitigate the final net capital cost to property owners.
Wastewater reticulation schemes are costly for various reasons including regulatory compliance, ground and locality conditions and community expectations including cultural impacts and the actions required for the mitigation of these. It is important to note that the only viable alternative to the reticulation is compliance with the Toi Moana Bay of Plenty Regional Council OSET Plan which would see individual property owners taking sole responsibility for on-property systems, including all installation costs and ongoing maintenance.
Costs were recently significantly impacted by weather that caused the highest lake levels since the 1970s, supply chain disruptions through the Covid pandemic and high inflation on goods and services.
The scheme has been constructed in strict adherence to all resource consent conditions, the Heads of Agreement with Ngāti Pikiao, the terms of the land lease agreement with Haumingi 9B3B (which owns the wastewater treatment plant site) and the Cultural Management Plan.
An update on emerging increased actual costs was provided to Council’s elected members in 2021, together with representatives of the Iwi Liaison Group, noting Council’s funding policy requires that communities that benefit from these schemes carry the net cost, minus any external funding, under a capital targeted rate.
As property owners have been advised, the emerging gross costs of the scheme were identified early after the resource consent conditions were granted and efforts started through the Rotorua Te Arawa Lakes Programme Strategy Group to secure additional Crown funding. While initial estimates have been provided those were based on the concept design with a significant degree of uncertainty. The final cost is not determined until the project nears completion and we now believe we are close to securing the support of the current Minister for the Environment to reallocate further funding support as requested.
While Council has sent 27 project updates to property owners and community groups since 2015 and hosted various public meetings we do acknowledge there could have been more communication regarding the estimated gross costs and updates on external funding. Where information has been sought it has been provided.
The 2024-34 Long-term Plan is the current point of the process where all matters are more precisely known and community feedback is sought to inform the Council’s funding decisions.
Decisions regarding the scope of the reticulation and the on-property systems involved local residents’ representatives and iwi representatives and where contractors have made any installation errors and been required to undertake remedial works, this has been undertaken at their own cost.
From Rotorua Mayor, Tania Tapsell:
“There is no doubt that these costs are significant and these issues can only be resolved by working together. I have reminded the new Minister for the Environment of our continued requests for the reallocation of $10million to this project, as originally planned. This reallocation of funding will relieve some of the burden on these locals.
“We now have a new Chief Executive at council who has been tasked with ensuring we not only find the best outcomes for our residents but also that costs within our control are managed in the best way possible.”
