We are about to experience the next pain point since the closure of the Manawatū Gorge as the team at Te Ahu a Turanga close a portion of State Highway 3 near Woodville to construct the roundabout on the Manawatū-Tararua Highway. Road closures are planned for five weeks, adding additional time to journeys from February 24th.

Further works are planned for the State Highway whilst the closure is in place. We continue to look at options for the heavy vehicles to provide safe and workable solutions. We are actively working with NZTA Waka Kotahi and council teams to try to minimise the impact for business as much as possible which includes ongoing monitoring of the detours.

While frustrating for drivers, it will be our business community in Woodville that will be hit hardest with only half the usual traffic estimated to be passing through the town.

Woodville remains open for business and will need our support whenever you are able. We can see the progress on the Te Ahu a Turanga and this will be the last closure we experience as we wait with anticipation for the reduced travel times, safety and resilience the replacement Manawatū-Tararua highway promises.

Council continues to focus on key matters such as the land rationalisation project and the integration of services, the aim here is to create further operational efficiencies.

We are also preparing the necessary information to consult on a change in how our water services are delivered. This is part of Local Water Done Well that is focussing on delivering better water services and being financially sustainable.

By scaling up and working together with other councils, we can average out the timing of our borrowing capacity and pool our credit risk to achieve more leverage.

The ability to access this extra funding will be essential to complete the future required infrastructure investment. We can also improve our “economy of scale”. Bigger is not always better, but it often is.

While this is not a complete solution, or silver bullet, it may offer some help because our major lender, Local Government Funding Agency (LGFA), will be more likely able to support the future investment required for our three waters infrastructure.

This will also go a long way to meeting Government’s requirements for water services to be financially sustainable. We are no longer operating in the same framework with the new water regulator Taumata Arowai. Costs are going to increase, it’s just now by how much and now how we can minimise these costs.

We are working towards finalising two alternate water models to consult with you in March being a Wairarapa Tararua model and an enhanced Tararua model.

We look forward to sharing and having further discussion on the future of water.