Holding down council spending is the stand-out message from respondents to The Martinborough Star’s rates cap quiz of last month – and it echoes the call for “an efficient, focussed council which can deliver South Wairarapa residents the best value for money.” That call was made by the rates cap petition group “SWfuturefocus” which had more than 1,000 signatures on its public demand for council to take action to save money and spend better.
Quiz respondents were nearly unanimous in their responses to two of the 24 questions:
- South Wairarapa District Council (SWDC) should cap staff numbers and costs during its current budget crisis;
- SWDC should have a more open and transparent services contracting system.
Both garnered 93 percent support from readers.
Close behind, with some 80% support, was a demand for a “line-by-line open budget review” by the council in a public hunt for savings and to expose inefficiency in its operations, contracting and other spending. Only 13 percent voted to “keep the status quo.”
Other revenue-focussed questions also won more than 70 percent reader support, including:
- all non-critical council programmes should be paused and reviewed;
- central government should pay rates for local services;
- central government should revenue-share with local government nation-wide;
- central government should reimburse local government for costs imposed by its programmes and regulations;
- using Pain Farm for waste water dispersal also gained 73 percent support _ while 27 percent of respondents said the council should continue to “use river disposal.”
- After solid growth in council fees for services over recent years, there was still a strong “user-pays” attitude when it came to a question on whether service fee charges should be increased “at a faster rate.” Some 67 percent of replies said “retain the current rate” of increase. One in three said “no.”
That same number – 67 percent – favoured council accelerating the three towns’ water pipe replacement programme, the other one-third wanted to “proceed as now.” At the 60 percent approval level was a proposal that the council should repair its rundown, leaking and mould-infested main office building in Martinborough, while no respondents wanted the council to build new offices.
Nearly half also suggested that a Public-Private Partnership could be developed to provide rental office space instead.
Sixty percent agreed that library hours and “full service” should continue as is, while 60 percent also wanted “only essential” footpath development to take place over the coming five years.
Given that few readers would know that $60,000 is the annual fee for SWDC retaining its membership of Local Government NZ, some 47 percent of replies said “don’t know” when asked whether the council should quit membership. Several other district councils have departed the group, claiming its fees are excessive compared with the benefits.
Asked whether current SWDC public consultation levels should increase, just 53 percent said “yes, more,” 40 percent want the current levels retained.
