Photo: Paul Robinson
As Wellington's five metro councils move towards joint water services, Wellington City Councillors have voted in favour of funding an independent Water Consumer Advocacy Group.
MetroWater, the joint council body, will be formed under the government's Local Water Done Well, which requires new water organisations to report to council owners as the key relationship, but not to customers.
Tim Brown has been a Wellington City Councillor for the past three years.
He spent nearly three decades with the infrastructure investor Infratil.
He is not standing for council again, but in the final meeting of this triennium, proposed a resolution that the Wellington City Council provide financial support to an independent water consumer advocacy group to be up and running by next March.
It was unanimously passed. He speaks with Susie Ferguson, along with Gillian Blythe, chief executive of the industry body Water New Zealand.
Wellington Water provided this statement in response to the interview:
Wellington Water disputes Cr Brown’s statement that there is a lack of understanding about the state of Wellington’s pipes. Wellington Water has a clear and publicly well-document understanding of the network’s condition, and this is regularly and thoroughly reported back to its shareholding councils, including WCC. Wellington Water also rejects Cr Brown’s claim that WCC has little influence over Wellington Water, saying that as a shareholder it has veto power on all appointments to the Wellington Water Board. With regards to the Annual Report, it says this was late due to factors outside its control, which were reported to all councils, including WCC.
