No issues seen in supplying key services to rural areas

Wayne Jack

With the possible boundary reorganisation now on the cards, the Napier City Council says it will have no problems delivering services to rural areas.

Speaking to Hawke's Bay Today from overseas, council chief executive Wayne Jack said, in terms of providing services, "We can do that fine. We are financially strong and we are very good at asset management.

"We have got a very strong outdoor workforce and we get very high ratings from our community when we survey them each year."

He said the council would approach the rating and services issue through a harmonisation process.

"As you know, Napier has got a different rating level to Hastings," he said.

"So what happens is that just harmonises in with ours and then we provide the level of service that we provide across our area."

An example he gave was waste services - which his council shared with the Hastings District Council (HDC).

"We have got a very efficient waste system - it would just get built into [the rates] and we would deliver that service."

He said his council would review road services and look at possible opportunities.

"Shared services is something we could look at," he said. "Particularly when it starts looking up towards the Wairoa boundary we think there is opportunities with QRS, which is the Wairoa roading contractor.

"But we would certainly do a full review on that to see what was the most efficient way to deliver those rural roads."

Mr Jack said issues that came with such a reorganisation were a case of "engaging with your community, finding out what level of service that they want, finding out what services are currently delivered."

On the services such as the outdoor services NCC provided, he said: "We are one of the few councils that actually has an outdoor workforce, so we have got a very strong workforce in that area.

"We are very committed to delivering a great service, parks and reserves is very strong as well as water care services."

An HDC spokesperson responded to questions on behalf of its chief executive regarding how its council services would be affected by the reorganisation: "Regarding services, etc, studying and analysing the effects of the proposal is not something council will be expending resources on at this stage."

Although not directly affected by the proposal, Wairoa District Council (WDC) chief executive Fergus Power said Wairoa would continue to work under the shared services model, regardless of whoever was on their boundary.

"Contrary to the myth that has been talked about on a frequent basis prior to the amalgamation, at an operation level the CEs [chief executives] and senior staff of all of the five councils get on really well," he said.

"So we work together very co-operatively and if any of us need help we just need to speak up and the help is there."

He explained how the scheme between NCC, WDC and their CHB counterparts was strengthening.

"Since I began here 18 months ago I have been pretty heavily involved in that," he said.

"So we have a lot of shared services under way in both directions with Napier City.

"And of course there are many shared service improvements to both value and service delivery."

He put the success of the model down to trust between the parties.