Sent: Thursday, 13 February 2025 8:49 am
Subject: Information request - Rotoma East Rotoiti Sewerage Scheme
I refer to your information request of 7 February 2025 regarding the status of the Rotomā East Rotoiti sewerage scheme. Your request was processed under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act.
Please find below responses to your various queries:
Current Status of Scheme Completion
Total no of units installed on private properties at 31 January 2025:
- East Rotoiti - 347
- Rotoma – 213
- Total no of existing private properties within the area without units installed
- The status of existing private properties without units installed. Ie the reasons why these installations haven’t taken place and the number of properties effected by these reasons.
East Rotoiti:
No. Of Properties | Justifications |
Legal Handover = 15 | Properties have been designated as ‘Legal Handover.’ These properties have indicated their refusal to connect to the scheme. RLC in conjunction with BoPRC are currently proceeding with legal enforcement.
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OSET = 2 | Properties have requested to retain their current OSET systems. According to RLC consent conditions, these properties must be referred to the Haumingi 9B3B Trustees. Kepa Morgan will act on behalf of the Trust as its Technical Advisor.
The request for approving existing individual OSET systems in Rotoiti involves the Haumingi 9B3B Trustees. The Technical Advisor will review all submitted information, conduct their own assessments, and present the findings to key stakeholders, including the Objector Group, Pikiao Koeke, Ngati Pikiao Environmental Society, and Helen Nathan (Morrison Kent). At the conclusion of this process, the Technical Advisor will present their findings and make a recommendation to the Trust. If agreed, these properties will pay for a connection fee equivalent to about 60% of the targeted rate set by Council.
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Māori Land Court = 37 | We anticipate that approximately 37 properties (multiple Māori ownership whenua) will continue to present ongoing legal process challenges, which will be gradually resolved as the Māori Court process allows. Complex Māori land ownership issues continue to pose legal challenges that need to be overcome. The project team is actively working through these issues. The outcome of the Māori Land Courts Judicial Conference held in September 2022 has provided valuable guidance to address some of the complex issues associated with Māori land. This includes a review of all land titles and identifying the different typologies for the licenses, as well as the preparation of various license documents.
Additionally, there was unanticipated work required to identify an appropriate way to address roadways in relation to general land titles. The team is focused on finding the most efficient way to manage the large volume of information involved to maintain efficiency moving forward.
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Pending Installation = 9 | Locality plans have been signed. We are currently waiting for more properties to participate to ensure a sufficient quantity of installations, making the process more cost-effective in line with the arrangements made with Fulton Hogan.
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RLC to finalise = 11 | These properties present a range of issues that need to be addressed by RLC. These include difficulties in tracing the owners, properties that have been sold, and extensive dialogue required to convince some owners to join the scheme without resorting to legal enforcement.
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Marae = 6 | Marae's Design work is currently underway with Iwi to identify the system configuration required to accommodate Marae “super events.”
We need to gather sufficient data on usage to better design the systems to be installed for the Marae. The team is progressing with the final design parameters of the on-Marae installations (units, pipes, etc.) in collaboration with the Cultural Impacts Team and their technical advisers. Once this is completed, we will move forward with the consenting matters.
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Rotoma:
No. Of Properties | Justifications |
Legal Handover = 3 | Properties have been designated as ‘Legal Handover.’ These properties have indicated their refusal to connect to the scheme. RLC in conjunction with BoPRC are currently proceeding with legal enforcement.
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- The status of installations at the Maraes, public amenities, businesses etc.
Property Class | Status |
Marae:
| One, 1550 SH 30, Waiiti Marae
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Public amenities:
| All public amenities have been connected
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Businesses:
| All businesses have been connected
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Status of Independent Assessment
We understand a number of parties including the Ministry for the Environment had requested that an independent assessment be conducted of RLC’s handling of the Rotomā/East Rotoiti Sewerage Scheme.
Could you please give us an update on the status of this independent assessment?
Have the terms of reference been suggested or agreed for the assessment? What are these terms of reference at this stage?
Could you also please provide copies of information provided to the Ministry for the Environment by RLC to assist them in their decision making regarding the independent assessment?
The Minister’s Office assigned a third party (QS) to undertake the Independent Review of the Rotomā/East Rotoiti Sewerage Scheme project. The Terms of Reference for that review were finalised in November 2024 (see attached) and Council has exchanged a significant body of information and documents with the assessor since then.
Rotoiti Terms of Reference November 2024 - (PDF, 381KB)
The latest communication requested more supporting information by 14 February which the Council is sourcing.
The completion of the assessment is anticipated to be by the end of March 2025 for the Strategy Group.
The documentation provided to the independent assessor forms part of the assessor’s working files and until Council has received the final draft of the assessment these documents remain work in progress. Once the Strategy Group has received the final report and accepted it, this will become public information.
