Whanganui mayor says there’s ‘nothing to hide’ as annual report released

The council performed well in delivering services to the community within budget constraints. Photo / Bevan Conley

Whanganui District Council’s annual report shows missed performance targets in some areas, but there is a clean bill of health in terms of finances.

A report from council financial officers said it performed well in delivering services to the community within budget constraints for the year ending June 30.

Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe said while there were extra requirements and a financial burden in completing these kinds of reports, the council wanted to be more open, transparent and visible.

“There is a lot of depth of information in this report.

“If anyone was interested in getting past the glossy front page, they would understand that the council do a huge amount in our community.

“We’ve got nothing to hide. Everything we do as a council, in partnership with the community, is in here for all to see.”

The 210-page report will be posted on the council’s website by the end of November.

There was a net increase in council debt of $10 million, $5.7m lower than expected due to lower capital expenditure and higher external funding.

The total rates revenue of $70.3m was marginally lower (0.3 per cent) than budgeted because of slightly lower metered water charges.

Councillor Jenny Duncan said the cost of the audit and the “tie-up” of the team doing the work required, compared to the benefit to the community, was completely out of sync.

“I think it’s gone too far. I think we audit far, far too much.”

Council finance manager Simon Manville said the council’s finance and policy teams had “lived and breathed” the document for the last three or four months.

Complaints about sewerage (202), including sewage odour, system faults and blockages, were well above the council’s targets, as was the median response time for attending non-urgent callouts about the water supply.

That came in at 8.3 days, well above the target of less than 24 hours.

It was a similar story for resolutions of non-urgent water supply issues, with an average time of 12.72 days. The target was less than four days.

There had been a 46 per cent increase in physical visits to the district’s libraries compared to the previous year, but it was still below the target of more than 34,000.

Tenants’ overall satisfaction with the pensioner housing service was 96.09 per cent, above the target of 90 per cent.

According to the council’s property and rating database, 99 per cent of dog owners were deemed responsible, against a target of 68 per cent.

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and 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.