A transformative year for Waitaki District Council
Published on 31 July 2025
Investing in infrastructure, reducing staff numbers and expanding our digital services.
Waitaki District Council welcomes the publication of the Government profiles of councils. As a Council we are focused on our ambition of “being a leading Council delivering the best for our community.”
Our Transformation Programme is changing the way we do things to ensure we are more effective and efficient in delivering for our district. Having data to compare ourselves to other councils will help us achieve our ambition.
The recent Department of Internal Affairs profiles recognise the challenges facing Council’s around New Zealand, they provide an important opportunity for Waitaki District Council to demonstrate the changes it has made in the last year.
The 2024/25 financial year has seen transformative change at Waitaki District Council, and the beginning of a different way of delivering Council services for the community.
Council recognised the way it delivers for the district was relatively unchanged since amalgamation in 1989, and designed a replacement intended to achieve the aspirations of our community, elected members and staff.
The new organisation structure at Waitaki District Council is supporting us to deliver more effectively and efficiently. It has delivered a rationalisation of Council’s teams and services, delivering more locally focused services through our Area Lead, Capital and Contract Inspectors and Locality Officers.
This has also led to an 8.9% reduction in FTE staff, the largest drop in more than 20 years.
Our new approach is helping us to improve customer service access and levels whilst using resources more efficiently. By using facilities we already have open, we’ve expanded the hours that Council services are available as residents can now come and see us in-person six days a week at the Oamaru Library and Service Centre, and for longer hours each day. This is particularly important for those residents who work.
We have put all forms on line and soon will have all property files accessible on line. We’re also preparing to launch more digital transformation services, allowing the community to do much more online, 24/7. All of this is part of our transformational change in customer service: improving access, speeding up service, making efficiencies and ensuring people can access services at times convenient to them.
Unfortunately the Department of Internal Affairs figures regarding Capital Expenditure are not correct. In 2025, Council deferred around $20 million of budgeted work to the following year. That has been double counted by the Government. Our budgeted capital expenditure over the period is around $128 million.
The breakdown of that spend is as follows:
- Roading (excl. Kakanui Bridge): around $20 million - this is the standard spend for maintaining our network, and also 57% funded by NZTA
- Kakanui Bridge: around $11 million - a one-off spend, 57% funded by NZTA
- Water Networks: around $34 million- this is the required spend to upgrade our network and meet standards
- Network Waitaki Events Centre: around $33 million- one-off spend, 53% funded by donations or grants awarded to the Events Centre Trust
- Forrester Gallery: around $9 million - one-off spend, funded by a $6.5 million grant by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage and funds held by the Friends of the Forrester Gallery, bequests and grants
- Other (parks, property, facilities): around $12.5 million - HQ, social housing development, community precinct in the LTP
- IT/Support Services Related: around $8 million - Upgrading Council's I.T platforms and services, District Plan costs
As you can see, Waitaki District Council is currently undertaking three separate once-in-a-generation infrastructure projects. The Network Waitaki Events Centre, the Kakanui Bridge replacement and the Forrester Gallery extension.
These projects are all funded externally by the community, the NZTA and the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, with Councils funding a minority of each.
We are also undertaking vital infrastructure upgrades for our waters network, as well as maintaining our roads, parks, reserves and property as a responsible Council.
While figures are pegged to the median, Waitaki District has almost double the media population and double the land-area of Councils it is classed as similar to. This has an impact on the requirement for capital investment, even without the major infrastructure projects at the Forrester Gallery, in Kakanui and at Centennial Park Oamaru.
Council’s transformation programme of changing the way we Waitaki was because the Mayor and Councillors recognised that business-as-usual was no longer possible and long-term organisational changes were needed to modernise, streamline and deliver more efficient, cost-effective services for the ratepayer.
We look forward to these changes being reflected in the next annual DIA profile of Waitaki District Council.
ENDS