Opportunity for community to have their say on the 3 Waters Reform

Talking to the community about the proposed Three Waters Reform will assist Council to decide on their feedback to the government. Central government has given all Councils in New Zealand until 1 October to provide feedback on their proposal to transfer the assets and provision of Three Waters services to one of four larger entities covering various parts of the country. Westland’s water services would be provided by one entity that covers the majority of the South Island.

A series of livestream meetings are being held and available on the Council’s website, alongside a feedback form available on our website and in the Hokitika Guardian and the West Coast Messenger next week so that everyone can have their say.

Mayor Bruce Smith says, “Even though the government isn’t asking Councils to make a binding decision on their proposal we need to know what the community thinks about this. We wanted to visit our residents around the district and talk to them face-to-face, but with the current Covid-19 situation we are taking a cautious approach and staying put. However, we will be holding meetings and livestreaming them for our communities and I’d encourage anyone with questions to send them to our dedicated email address: 3watersreform@westlanddc.govt.nz. If we can we will also make sure that people can get hold of hard-copies of the form from our facilities, but that is also dependent on moving down to Alert Level 2.”

View a livestream session on our website at westlanddc.govt.nz/livestream.

Livestream sessions will be recorded and available on our Youtube channel.

More information and the feedback form can be found on our website at westlanddc.govt.nz/have-your-say/3waters

ENDS

Media enquiries to:

Emma Rae, Strategy and Communications Advisor

Emma.rae@westlanddc.govt.nz