Council to approve Water Services Delivery Plan
Published on 05 June 2026
Next week Waitaki District Council will be holding an extraordinary meeting to approve the amended Water Services Delivery Plan, as required by the Department of Internal Affairs.
On Tuesday this week, the Mayor and Councillors – joined by Crown Facilitator Amy Adams by video link – reviewed the draft Water Services Delivery Plan in a public workshop. A recording of the workshop is available on Council’s YouTube channel now, or embedded below.
In October 2025, the Secretary for Local Government, Paul James, rejected Waitaki’s plan to deliver water services in-house and the Local Government Minister appointed The Hon Amy Adams as Crown Facilitator to support the development of a new Water Services Delivery Plan.
The Department of Internal Affairs required Council to undertake an asset condition assessment, to give greater confidence in Council’s existing asset management plan and ensure that the proposed investment in assets across the 10-year plan was appropriate.
In December 2025 the Mayor and Councillors set the direction to seek joint-CCO partnership with South Canterbury and the Southern Waters group of Councils, approving a re-joining of the Southern Waters group in February 2026.
The asset condition assessment is now complete, and minimal required changes have been made as a result.
Speaking to the Mayor and Councillors, The Hon Amy Adams said: “In my view the draft that’s in front of you now meets all of those components that the Secretary’s letter required it to contain. The secretary and his team need to go through those and assess whether they are satisfied with the sufficiency and the adequacy of the detail”
The draft Water Services Delivery Plan will be amended to reflect recent decisions on the Annual Plan 2026-27, including the infrastructure investment required in the next financial year, and this will be presented to the Mayor and Councillors for discussion and approval at next Tuesday’s meeting.
The extraordinary meeting of Council will take place at 10:15am on Tuesday 9 June.
ENDS
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