Opinion: Range of communication avenues for representation review feedback

Kāpiti mayor K Gurunathan. Photo / Jack Penman

Weekly column by Kāpiti mayor K Gurunathan.

Public consultation on the council's representation review kicks off today for four weeks.

The consultation document will explore community response to the council's preferred option and also offer an opportunity for the public to also challenge and offer alternatives to the preferred option.

Given the distinct possibility we could continue to be under constraints imposed by Covid-19, the council will, over these four weeks and beyond, be using a range of communication avenues to enable submitters to participate. We have been there before.

The annual plan is a very significant document that required consultation. Last year, the annual plan consultation process faced similar Covid-19 related constraints. The Government changed the legal process to enable councils to use online engagement to consult and make decisions.

We should certainly do more this time to increase community engagement especially for those with little access to computers.

There is a view that the representation review consultation process should be abandoned because of Covid-19. If that's an adopted position then one can also use that position to argue against those seeking an immediate public consultation and referendum on the Government's controversial Three Waters Reform.

Actually, learning more effective ways of conducting our local democracy under Covid-19 constraints is likely to be the new normal and we should be embracing the challenges instead of abandoning our democratic responsibility.

I have received a few emails calling on the council to investigate our ability to seek a public referendum on the Three Waters reforms. They were pleased to be informed that under clause 9.16 of our standing orders, there are six specific clauses protecting council control and management of our drinking water assets and management.

Any proposed alienation of these will trigger a public referendum to provide input into council deliberations and, tightening it further, a 75 per cent majority support around the council table is needed for such motions to succeed.

A third area where there has been some misinformation relates to the disposal of Kāpiti waste at the Hokio landfill in Horowhenua.

Under the current lease agreements for our transfer stations at Otaihanga and Ōtaki, the operator owns the waste stream that comes through the gate and decides on which landfill the waste is disposed at.

Currently, the waste from our biggest transfer station, Otaihanga, is disposed at Bonny Glen landfill in Marton. Only the waste from Ōtaki is disposed at Hokio. Horizons Regional Council is the consenting authority responsible.

While it has issued some breaches of consent conditions it has not issued an abatement notice to close the landfill. The contract will end in 2023 at which point the council can negotiate an end to disposal at the Hokio dump.

The question of a new landfill in Kāpiti is regularly mooted. Given the legal requirements and difficulty of getting resource consent this is unlikely. The building costs will also be prohibitive and a landfill able to only take waste from within the district will not be economic.