September 16, 2020
localmatters.co.nz
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Inside this issue Budget cuts hit streets page 6
Healthy start
Auckland councillors, from left, Wayne Walker, John Watson and Greg Sayers want residents to have cheaper access to town water when rainwater tanks run dry.
pages 27 to 34
Councillors pressure Watercare for Hibiscus Coast connection fee cut Fears of another summer drought have led three north Auckland councillors to push Watercare to reduce connection charges for households that are on tank supply, but could also access town water. Albany Ward Crs Wayne Walker and John Watson have joined Rodney Cr Greg Sayers in asking for the connection fee to be temporarily reduced, saying
it would encourage households to connect to the mains network leaving fewer people solely reliant on tanks – important for drought resilience. Watercare estimates there are more than 2500 households on the Hibiscus Coast, who are connected to wastewater, but not to the mains supply. Currently the average cost for connecting to the network in a location
like Whangaparaoa is $7382. This is made up of a connection and meter charge of $471 and an Infrastructure Growth Charge of $6911. The fee is prohibitive for many households and the councillors hope that the growth charge could be reduced, for a limited time, as an incentive. Last summer the drought, coupled with reduced flow at Watercare’s
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tanker filling stations, led to long waits for tank refills. The councillors warn that with low dam levels and another dry summer predicted, restrictions on local filling stations could be even more dramatically impacted. “We know what’s coming, and relying on commercial water carriers may not work,” Cr Watson says. “Those continued p2