One example was ending the kerbside food scraps service, Phillips said.
“The day the Government unmandated it, the council should have revisited it.
“It took six or eight months, which meant sunk costs got higher.”
Phillips said he spent more than 20 years in transport and logistics, where “preventive maintenance is everything”, and addressing issues such as cracking at the Whanganui East Pool far earlier would have saved money.
He said the council should not get involved in solving housing issues.
The council is in the early stages of setting up a stand-alone housing entity, with a goal of building 1000 homes over 10 years.
“At the moment, yes, there might be fewer houses than we need, but we could invest all this money and the market changes,” Phillips said.
“If we look at the pensioner housing stock, again, that’s where preventive maintenance comes in.
“It’s cheaper to fix them than let them fall apart, knock them down and build new ones.”
Phillips said next year marked 40 years of Whanganui’s street drags event and 75 years of the Cemetery Circuit.
“Those things make Whanganui unique.
“Unless you’re in that community, you might not even know the world series of jet sprints was held in Ūpokongaro.
“I believe we are the motorsport capital of New Zealand but we’re not promoted that way.”
The public needed to know “what the numbers are” when it came to significant council purchases, such as last year’s decision to buy three properties in preparation for a potential hotel development.
“[The] council said it was $3.9 million, but the endowment fund would cover $3.5 million, so we only have to borrow $400,000,” Phillips said.
“You’re still spending the same amount of money, it’s just coming from a different place.”
Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.
